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Saturday, Jul 4, 2009
I find it nearly impossible to believe that a person could lie as much as Bob Barr did about Clinton on TV and every where else and then suddenly become an honest person just a few years later. Especially since I've never heard him really account for himself.
Nobody needs to explain to me the Evil that was Bob Barr in the 1990s. I devoted a small section of my last book to documenting how hideous he was, the huge disparity between his public posturing and his actual life. His prime legislative achievement -- the odious Defense of Marriage Act -- is the reason I can't live full-time in the U.S. He was one of the most vile people on the political scene. No doubt about it.
But the Left has welcomed all sorts of people like that. David Brock was as bad if not worse, and now he's widely loved as the head of Media Matters. Arianna Huffington spent all of the 1990s in hard-core right-wing circles and now she runs the largest liberal news site/blog on the Internet. Andrew Sullivan was one of the most vicious demonizers of war opponents in 2002 and now he's one of the favorite bloggers of hard-core Obama fanatics. Barack Obama travels around with the still-right-wing, pro-life Chuck Hagel, and Obama supporters cheer.
Bob Barr says he changed, that the radicalism of the last seven years changed his views. Is he telling the truth? Who knows? Did David Brock change? Huffington? Sullivan?
Whatever else is true, there are people on the Right who believe in the same things people on the Left when it comes to war and civil liberties. Anyone can go read the Cato Institute's writing about these issues over the last seven years and let me know which group has done more to oppose extremist Bush policies than they have.
That's why the ACLU -- in the wake of the 9/11 hysteria -- hired Barr as a privacy consultant. They saw that much of the Democratic establishment was joining with the Bush administration in these policies, or would at least fail to oppose it, and they wanted to create a coalition as large and diverse as possible to work on those issues.
I agree with what the ACLU did, and I don't see how anyone can say that there are other options after witnessing what the Democrats have done with their control of Congress over the last 2 years.
This isn't directed to your comment specifically -- I know you were saying you think it's good to form this coalition -- but I'm just addressing much of the sentiment I've seen here.
The Wasilla soap opera just gets weirder as Palin complains critics are "picking apart a good point guard"
The media outlet's use of Bush euphemisms sparks a much-needed debate on journalistic standards.
And so are his Fox News pals, who lambasted Sen. Al Franken's "stolen election"
An inflexible right wing is allowing the Golden State to drown in debt. But it's not alone
Thanks for sharing, Governor. Now please take a cue from Norm Coleman, and go away
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