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Powerline writer’s subservience to the president who despises him
The other day Paul at the pro-Bush website Powerline politely but firmly expressed his displeasure at former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson for insulting the critics of the immigration bill (which group includes Powerline’s three writers) as nativists and xenophobes controlled by fear. Paul concluded: “Forgive me, then, if I tune out much of the White House propaganda on this issue. I don’t like having my intelligence or my character insulted.” It seemed to me a dignified and restrained response to Gerson’s outrageous attack. However, now that the president himself has unloaded on the bill’s critics in terms similar to Gerson’s, will Paul express similar disapproval of the president? Well, actually, Paul has saved himself the trouble of doing that (and indeed in the two days since Bush’s speech attacking the critics of his bill, Powerline has remained silent about it). Look again at his sign-off on Gerson: “Forgive me, then, if I tune out much of the White House propaganda on this issue. I don’t like having my intelligence or my character insulted.” Paul has set up the situation so that, instead of having to criticize the president of whom he is a devoted defender and apologist, he can simply ignore anything the president says on the issue. Neat.
So, what I initially saw as dignity, I now see as weakness. What Paul is saying is that he’s too big to acknowledge it when other people are kicking him in the teeth, especially when the one doing the kicking is his hero, George W. Bush. Email entry |