Dems using Kerry's bashing to defend Iraq War - Who is Jonathan Chait?

[Mass]

Aside a few gratuitous affirmations that we hate Kerry and that this is why Bush is using his quotes to defend Iraq, the author starts a comment on how liberals do not hate the Iraq war, but Bush.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-chait20nov20,0,4146366.column?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

How to make an honest case for Iraq

IT'S BEEN A bleak few months for those in the Bush administration. It's become clear that they're not good at fighting counterinsurgencies in Iraq. They're not good at handling natural disasters. They're not good at managing the budget. They're not even good at avoiding indictments.

What are they good at? Oh, yes: running against John Kerry.
...
The point here isn't to defend poor, put-upon Kerry. In fact, Kerry, who persists in his bizarre delusion that he has a chance to win the 2008 nomination, is thrilled to have his profile raised. Kerry and Bush have a shared interest in making you believe that if you don't like George W. Bush, you must like John Kerry.

The reason Bush wants to do this, of course, is that he's an unpopular president. He just had the good fortune of running for reelection against a pitiful and hard-to-like foe. He seems to have given up on making the public approve of him and has fallen back on reminding them that they really hate Kerry.

...

The sad thing is that there is, or was, a prospect to get Democrats on board with the war effort. I believe that liberals loathe the war because they loathe Bush, rather than vice versa. What they want above all is for Bush to admit he made some huge mistakes in Iraq. It's not a big thing to admit; everybody knows it's true.

[karynnj]

1. This is totally obnoxious

I 've never heard of him - and I hope I don't again.

But, take it for what it's worth. I doubt he can get many to believe liberals hate the war because they hate Bush. He ignores that the liberals ARE putting out alternatives on the war and that even many Republicans concede the Bush "policy" is not working.

The reason Kerry is mentioned is not because he was the unlikable alternative but because Bush is trying to muddy the waters about the fact that he distorted the pre-war intelligence. He also mentions both Clintons and Reid - are they unlikable too.

[Mass]

3. May be Vektor can send him one of her haikus to show him that

Kerry is not that hard to like.

[karynnj]

5. It might shock him

[Mass]

6. Probably.

[ProSense]

2. Jonathan Chait is a senior editor at The New Republic

Why does an article about Bush's failures as president have to bash Kerry in such an offensive way?

He's one of those pro-war types like Peter Beinart (also of The New Repubic and one of those who signed the PNAC letter urging war.

These are the people in the media whose sole purpose is to distort the facts to support a specific agenda.

Everything Kerry said about the war and Bush's incompetence was accurate, but instead of pointing to those comments this guy decides to bash a "potential" Kerry run.

[TayTay]

7. Oh, that explains a lot. He's a TNR writer

They hate Kerry. Kerry has never been completely on-board with the TNR agenda to carry the war through to it's grisly finish.

These people are clueless. Anyone who posts that liberals, or enough liberals, will begin to like the war if Bush just apologizes is severely deluded. These people believe in the underlying arguments that the PNAC crowd put forth and believe in the doctrine of striking first against a sovereign state because, well, we can.

This is pathetic. These people have no clue as to what the honest opposition to the war is about. They are bashing KErry because he is making sense. (TNR, remember, endorsed Joe Leiberman for Pres the last time. They are in no position to say who does or does not have a chance at the '08 nomination.)

[wisteria]

10. Oh, thank you for your sane post! It makes sense now why some

one could actually take this position, he is abnormal and warped.

[karynnj]

13. But, but .... they influence all the 2004 Lieberman voters

[Mass]

14. Consider that the person who won the primary was the one nobody

at TNR supported.

Considering, I think that the fact they find Kerry dillusional is a good sign for the future.

[TayTay]

Also, most of the liberal mags are gaining readership

The Nation is up by thousands and thousands of readers. The American Prospect, founded by Robert Reich is doing very well.

TNR is down readers. They do not represent more than a small sliver of the Democratic Party.

Bitter much?

[MH1]

25. Well, the Nation prints Alexander Cockburn.

(of Counterpunch infamy)

:puke:

I have thought often of canceling my subscription. But then one of the other writers redeems them.

[WildEyedLiberal]

31. I can't handle the Nation anymore

Cockburn is an asshole, and the staff editorials are a little too lefty purist for me. Eric Alterman is the only regular columnist I actually like there.

[Mass]

32. Whatever their faults are, I prefer 10 times to read the Nation than TNR

The Nation has a variety of writers, and people like David Corn are not purist or Katrina Vanden Heuvel are very good reporters. Coburn is an idiot, but you have idiots everywhere.

People in TNR are just so close to the Bush administration that it is sickening. Same thing goes for the WaPo these days.

[ginnyinWI]

33. haha

I guess I'm right in the groove: I do subscribe to the first two you mentioned!

[Dr Ron]

23. Worse than endorsing Lieberman

While they endorsed Lieberman, they did have a serious of articles in which various staff members did express their reasons for supporting other candidates. There was one candidate who did not have such an article supporting him--John Kerry.

[karynnj]

11. That explains a lot

He is pro-war and pro-PNAC. Why attack Kerry? Because Kerry is one of the leaders pushing for a non-PNAC based end of the war.

Kerry can hurt the PNAC cause 2 ways:
1) Getting the 2008 nomination and winning
or:
2) Pushing a plan to get out of Iraq and explosing the PNAC plan - which the US never was given the chance to reject or buy into and which was likely the main reason for war. In the Matthews interview Kerry did describe briefly PNAC as the reason Bush was so for attacking Iraq. (This also ties into why Bush wants to avoid questions of whether he lied us into war.)

[Vektor]

4. Perfect example! When I say "PENIS ENVY" THIS is what I mean.

This sniveling little panty-waist, Chait, clearly is the textbook picture.

He needs to get a life. And pull his lips off of Bush's c*ck.

[TayTay]

9. Yeah, what she said.

Cuz it was more direct than how I said it. (And more powerful.)

[_dynamicdems]

34. AMEN.

Sex as metaphor. Good one here. Way too many lips on that shriveled appendage!

You know, at first, I didn't get the Kerry as sex God talk and it kinda horrified me. However, once I saw how cleverly you use both metaphor (and haiku) to diffuse the hate, it occurred to me that there is something to the "penis envy" argument. That is, Senator Kerry is certainly an Alpha male: he's competitive, he stands his ground, he's tall and straight enough to intimidate by physical presence alone, he's athletic, he's daring, he's a Veteran and he's damn smart. These reasons alone are enough to make many men react on a visceral level that he is a threat. It is a primal thing. Probably why your comments make them run like scared rabbits.

[Vektor]

35. He's also so strikingly beautiful, IMHO

that it's often difficult to see him as "just a politician." I"m glad you are finally seeing the light, and learning to appreciate more than his smarts!! :-)

[_dynamicdems]

36. Wait a minute...I did NOT say that. I do not see any light! No LIGHT. n/t

[Vektor]

37. "However, once I saw how cleverly you use both metaphor (and haiku)

..."

If you've seen the Haiku, you've seen the light! :-)

[_dynamicdems]

38. Well, okay...

He is beautiful, but personally, I prefer to maintain a more platonic admiration for our favorite distinguished Senator.

:blush:

[Vektor]

39. Platonic is fine. For now.

:-)

[wisteria]

8. I wonder who he is pushing that he so has to mock Kerry.

What a jerk. You know, I hate these types of people more than some repubs., he doesn't explain why he thinks Kerry is delusional and why he can't run he just wants the reader to assume he knows it all. I've been busy today writing letters in support of Kerry, this guy, if I find his e-mail address, will get a nasty letter from me. You know what, let me take back the word jerk and call him a prick.

[Mass]

12. I am not quite sure, of course, but this sound a lot like what Biden was

saying this morning on Fox, when he called Biden to level with the American People to get their support.

[karynnj]

15. I never know where Biden is on Iraq

There was one speech, a month or so ago, when he attacked Bush for incompetence in running the war, attacked (unspecified) liberals, and praised Bush's inaguaral address as sounding like JFK with a Texas accent. Where does he stand now?

[TayTay]

16. Biden needs to sit down and write his thoughts down on paper

Make up a Against Iraq War and a For Iraq War paper and then write his thought down on each side. He can then come to a conclusion.

[Mass]

17. It really depends of the day, unfortunately.

Here is what he said today.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N20205315.htm

"Persuading the people to let you win -- that's exactly what they've lost," Biden said on Fox News Sunday, referring to a quote from British World War Two Prime Minister Winston Churchill by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld earlier in the show.

"They have persuaded the American people we can't win, because they don't level. They've persuaded people we can't win," the Delaware senator told interviewer Chris Wallace, suggesting the administration follow the example of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and outline the war's progress.

"He said take out your maps, folks, here's where we're winning, here's where we're losing, here's what we have to do."

"Why can't the president do that? We're losing the American people, and that is a disaster," Biden said.

[TayTay]

18. Does he really think he can run for President?

Is there anyone from Delaware here? Of all the possibilities in this way too early race for the primaries, Biden seems to me to be the least likely to attract support. He is Hillary-lite, which is not good.

To whom is he appealing? This war is not going to go away if the Admin explains it better. That is simply silly.

[wisteria]

19. This calls to mind Kerry's question to Rice, about how the

administration defines a victory. Binden is sitting on the fence like Hillary, IMO, waiting to see how this all plays out. They are trying not to take a stand for political reasons only. Or worse than that, they can't even make up their minds on this issue even after all that has come to pass.

[TayTay]

20. That just boggles the mind.

This is one of the most important issues in the country today. I don't see how you can vote for someone if they won't come down off the fence on this. That, to me, is just not leadership.

[wisteria]

21. Exactly! n/t

[JI7]

22. him and the other assholes from TNR NEVER liked Kerry

this isn't much different from the crap they spewed during the primary and even after. fuck them all.

[JI7]

24. Chait wanted Democrats to run John McCain for President

Chait is another one obsessed with hating Kerry and anything positive that comes from Kerry he feels the need to disprove.

do a search on his previous articles which are about KErry or mention Kerry.

[wisteria]

26. Your joking! He wants us to run McCain. Too crazy! n/t

[JI7]

28. not kidding at all and it becomes clear why he hates Kerry

he puts down anything positive that happens to Kerry such as winning Southern states in the primary or independents or anything else.

but he tries to make excuses for McCain's anti abortion position and tries to convince us that McCain ins't really anti abortion.

just like lefty freepers who love Buchanan and other types, CHait is another one who has a theory and tries to fit the events into that rather than take an independent look at the events and make something of it.

[wisteria]

29. He isn't in any way, shape or form a Dem. n/t

[karynnj]

27. Are you serious - He wanted a pro-war conservative Republican

to be the Democratic choice. I can see why he doesn't get Kerry. Should we tell him he's in the wrong party?

[wisteria]

30. Yeah, thats my response. n/t