Robert Bartley, longtime Wall Street Journal editor, dies

[johnfunk]

Robert Bartley, the editorial voice of The Wall Street Journal for decades and one of the country's most influential journalists, died Wednesday at a New York hospital. He was 66. Full article here.

... and may he burn in hell for what he did to Vincent Foster.

[Sir_Shrek]

1. have some class.......n/t

....

[Lefty48197]

10. Ironic isn't it?

Someone criticizing someone else for criticizing Bartley after he died for hounding Foster into committing suicide. Ironic.
BTW: Burn in hell Bartley.

[MrBenchley]

15. His dying words were

"I'm going to hold my breath until Hillary Clinton is indicted..."

[MarkTwain]

21. Class, my ass....

...Burning in hell is too good for that piece of trash. His editorial influence on this country and the type of leadership he encouraged was one of evil, selfishness, and crass oportunism resulting both directly and indirectly in the deaths of millions of earth's citizens.

Creep. Plain and simple.

[johnfunk]

30. I am having class

...and, for the record, I know members of the Foster family.

I would also assert that if I had no class, I would have wished for that lying scumbag neo-Fascist propagandist Robert "Barfley" to burn in hell while being buggered by a legion of Satan's most merciless denizens as he is simultaneously forced to administer Monicas (and/or Calista Biseks) to the Eternal Prince of Evil and Darkness while listening to the inaugural speeches of FDR, JFK and Bill Clinton.

That, my friend, would have been a demonstration of no class. Come to think of it, that last facet of his eternal damnation (the inaugural speeches) in and of itself has too much class. Strike it.

Be thankful I didn't go quite that far in my initial post.

[neuvocat]

2. They're sort of like a hydra:

cut off one head and two will take its place.

[Jim Sagle]

3. Bartley wuzn't nuthin' but shit when he was alive, and

he ain't nuthin' but shit now that he's dead.

[piece sine]

4. classy!

real classy.

[Cassandra]

6. So true, Jim

I have to admit, when I saw the post my first thought was Oh, joy!

[buycitgo]

25. guess they haven't learned ot appreciate your approach here yet, eh?

great Palast link, btw, on Baker

[Jim Sagle]

28. Thanx! (They should've gotten used to that epitaph - it's the same one

I used on Michael Kelly.) :shrug:

[11cents]

5. I'm with you

I wouldn't usually say something like this about the freshly dead, but this was a man without conscience, and what he did to Vince Foster and his family showed it.

[Hand]

7. If I may indulge in some truly tasteless behavior...

Na na NAH na, Na na NA-AH na, HEY HEY-EY, GO-OD BYE!!

Bartley was pond scum... in his case, I'm willing to make an exception to the de mortuis nil nisi bonum rule, mostly because there wasn't any damn bonum to the son of a bitch. Bad karma for me, maybe, but hey, I've piled up so much this won't make a lot of diff.

:nopity:

[qanda]

8. I pray his family will be comforted in their grief

It's never a good thing to find joy in a person's death. If you cannot say anything nice...

[buycitgo]

26. good advice, hard to take, though, in this case

therefore:

[Military Brat]

9. Look out, Satan, here comes Bartley after your job!

:nopity:

[legin]

11. OK so this is from memory

but I am pretty certain I've googled this guy to do with an article of praise he wrote about Wohlstetter in the WSJ which wasn't on the Internet (too early).

I sort of formed the impression that he is one the reasons why the neo-cons are so powerful today.

[legin]

23. You may want to watch to see who turns up to his Funeral

asuuming it is not a quiet family affair.

and not just for the people you know, the names we don't know will be useful leads.

[thebigidea]

12. CNBC's "WSJ Editorial Board" show was the closet thing to a funeral

it was a frightening spectacle, a gathering of the undead.

Someone make sure and dig up Bartley, see if there's really a body. It could be a Hammer Vampire type situation.

[KoKo]

13. It's hard to find a kind thing to say about this man. Really. N/T

nt

[MoonAndSun]

14. He was not punished in this life for his treatment of Vince Foster

and his family, but he will pay for it now.

Whether it be by burning in hell (if you believe in that place) or coming back re-incarnated as a slimy slug, he will pay for it.

[RamboLiberal]

16. And Chimpy was going to award him the

Presidental Medal of Freedom - they're both *%$&*%$!

[goforit]

27. Oh well......

?

[MrPrax]

17. Coincidentally Counterpunch just ran...

a 'tribute' to Bartley--who just received the Presidential Medal of Freedom...
<snip>...
Bartley's hatred of everything progressive and even mildly liberal stretches back to the 60s. In fact, as David Walsh points out (apparently, these days, it takes a socialist to notice these kind of things), Bartley "developed a pathological hatred for the radicalism of the 1960s and lays virtually all of the evils of the world at its door," including the murder of abortion doctors.

"We think it is possible to identify the date when the United States ... began to tip off the emotional tracks," the War Street Journal editorialized. "The date is August 1968 when the Democratic National Convention found itself sharing Chicago with the street fighters of the anti-Vietnam War movement."
more...
http://www.counterpunch.org/nimmo12062003.html

He sounds like he will truly be missed...

[wakfs]

18. Amen

n/t

[hadrons]

19. guy was scum, I only wish he suffered a lot ...

and to all those "if you can't say something nice" posters, this was one of the guys who helped make things so bad today

[PROGRESSIVE1]

20. Agreed! You are to nice to say that he is scum! It offensive to...

that stuff on the floor!

[bluestateguy]

22. If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all....

[johnfunk]

31. "Say nothing?" You mean the same approach Tom "Pink Tutu" Daschle...

... uses with the Bush Boy? Yeah, that really works.

To hell with Bartley. Literally.

[Devil Dog Dem]

24. F#&k him! No sympathy for this evil vile man.

He is already in hell, drafting an editorial entitled "Who Is Beelzebub?"

[coralrf]

29. Fuck Him..

Fuck him dead too...just like he did other folks...

[indepat]

32. At least he lived long enough to see his hard-right, PNAC vision

become reality in a corporatist, militarist, theocratic police state where guns are king and the Bill of Rights is trumped.

[TacticalPeek]

33. I wish he had lived to see Cheney and Rove in jail, universal disgrace

of the neocons, and aWol's crushing defeat and prostration.

Where's Santa when you need him?

:evilgrin:

[Merlin]

34. The reporters at the journal DESPISE their editorial page.

The WSJ is perhaps the world's best newspaper, if you ignore its editorial page. It is one of the best sources for inside scoops critical of the Bush admin.

It'll be interesting to see how much of a whore Paul Gigot--who was once semi-rational--becomes as Bartley's successor.

[Capt_Nemo]

35. One less motherf***er in the World today

Thousands yet to go!

[skypilot]

36. I once saw this guy being interviewed...

...by Bill Moyers on NOW. He had his chin buried in his chest the entire time and could barely bring himself to look Moyers in the eye. I think he knew even then that he was going to hell. Here's hoping that some of his friends join him soon.

[IrateCitizen]

38. Since I don't bother with WSJ, that was my first sighting of him too

The most memorable part of the interview:

MOYERS: So what you're saying, Bob, is that in our system, those who have the most money should have the most say?

BARTLEY: Ummm... well... yes.

Moyers totally pegged him. Totally. At least Grover Norquist could look Moyers in the eye.

[tom_paine]

37. What Totalitarian Monster Progandist will take his place?

One wonders...?

[Cooley Hurd]

39. He lived a long life...

A Billy Joel song comes to mind... "Only the good die young." I've said enough negative things about Bartley when he was alive, so I'll leave it at that...

Condolences to his family...

[mistertrickster]

40. Zuzu's line in It's a Wonderful Life--"everytime a Republican dies,

another gay angel gets his wings . . ."

[Catherine Vincent]

41. Couldn't figure out the hate for this guy until I did some research:

http://greenehouse.net/archives/001563.html

This is some of what I read about Robert Bartley:

Did he claim blood? You bet. After one scandal-hunting editorial — called “Who Is Vince Foster?” — insinuated that the man in question, a deputy White House counsel, had committed a grave breach of legal standards by refusing to send the paper his photo, Bartley and the Journal all but stalked the man. Bartley worked him into two more editorials in short order, one of which insinuated that his defense of the Clinton administration’s efforts to keep the minutes of its health-care task force private showed that he hardly had more scruples than Ollie North.

Vincent Foster killed himself not long afterward, leaving a note that said that the Journal “lies without consequence.” In Washington, he wrote after mentioning Bartley’s accusations, “ruining people is considered sport.”

How did Bartley react? With contrition? Nope — not unless contrition includes running an editorial asking whether “ death was somehow connected to his high office.”

-------

I wonder if this Bartley guy (before he died) ever thought once that he could possibly be partially responsible for Vince Foster committing suicide?

[Catherine Vincent]

42. Check out some of the transcript of Crossfire regarding Bartley:

BEGALA: Well, the Presidential Medal of Freedom is our nation's highest civilian honor. Yesterday, President Bush tarnished that award by giving it to right-wing hack Robert Bartley.

As editorial editor of "The Wall Street Journal," Mr. Bartley presided over a vicious, vituperative vendetta against President Clinton and everyone around him. Bartley's editorials were referenced in the poignant suicide note of Vince Foster, who wrote -- quote -- "The 'WSJ' editors lie without consequence" -- unquote. Bartley's rants now litter the dustbin of history. He was wrong about the Clinton economic program, wrong about the Clinton foreign policy, wrong about Whitewater, and pretty much every issue he ever addressed.

But Mr. Bush says Bartley -- quote -- "helped shape the times in which we live" -- unquote. Well, that he did. He replaced Ronald Reagan's sunny optimism with paranoia, cruelty, and bitterness. And for our president to honor this thug disgraces the Medal of Freedom. Shame on George Bush.

(APPLAUSE)

-------

Good for you Begala!

[Democat]

43. The article doesn't even mention that he was a right winger

Imagine if he was a liberal - they would have used the word "liberal" 10 times in the article.