February 23, 2016

WaPo's Philip Bump opines that it's "as dirty to berate Cruz for playing dirty as was anything that Cruz actually did."

Somehow, per Bump, characterizing your opponent, based on facts that are not misstated, is a dirty trick.

I'd like to see him try to apply that logic to all the candidates. You're a blustery blowhard if you portray Trump as a blustery blowhard. Etc. etc.

Is this the old takes-one-to-know-one/he-who-smelt-it-dealt-it rhetoric we all learned in childhood?

15 comments:

rhhardin said...

Moral posturing is big.

tim in vermont said...

Teddy Haskell. I think that his emails really turned me off to him. They were creepy and I can't shake the first impression.

traditionalguy said...

Pit vipers are misunderstood. While they are often accused of slithering in by small openings and biting with poison injector fangs, that really could have happened by mistake.

So it is overblown to use a series of two puncture bite marks being shown off by the dying men. That is just a shameful attempt to hurt the snake's reputation. Snake haters are such bad people.

tim maguire said...

It's no good looking for that thread of consistency running through liberal arguments and actions. It doesn't exist. Every action is taken on its own terms, absent context. If this position seems right to me today, then it is right. What was right yesterday and what will be right tomorrow are irrelevant to what is right today.

The only guidance is, Republicans are evil and all actions in opposition to evil are good. Democrats are good and all actions in furtherance of good are good.

Bobby said...

Nope, because we later learned that it's not really "who ever smelt it, dealt it"- it is actually "whoever made the rhyme, did the crime."

MaxedOutMama said...

WaPo can publish whatever views it is inclined to publish, but I doubt it will have any influence on the voters.

The fake Rubio/Bible thing, the Rubio/Obama thing, the Carson's-out-Iowa thing, the voter-calling-out-mailing. This is all political hardball, and it probably hurts Cruz with the evangelicals he is targeting.

My first reaction to the headlined quote is that the author of the quote is trying to divert our attention from Trump's allegations about Cruz - that Cruz is not a nice person, and that he doesn't play well with people, which now appear to be somewhat supported by deeds in his campaign. The desire is not to defend Cruz, but to prevent Trump from seeming to have been correct. Again.

Maybe Trump is just good at recognizing reality? He is consistently saying things which strike many as being extreme at the time, and then real world events show that the comment was not that off-base.

I feel I have every right to criticize politicians when they do sleazy things. Everyone does. And on what are we supposed to judge these people? If we cannot look at their campaigns for clues as to what kind of a president the candidates might be, what's the point of it all? A fashion show? Why should we waste our time?

tim in vermont said...

It's not just evangelicals who would like to see a genuinely nice guy in the White House.

mikeyes said...

I don't know about that (having a "nice guy" in the White House), I'd rather have an unmitigated bastard there than Jimmy Carter. The main job of the President is to protect the country and nice doesn't hack it in that respect.

holdfast said...

It looks like Cruz has been trying to play Trump's game, but it's not working for him. Trump's wide "policy" swings make him as much a liar as anybody in the race not named Clinton, but somehow that doesn't really phase his supporters. Cruz is supposed to the principled conservative, and he needs to play it that way.

trumpintroublenow said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mick said...

That's the way the left is. They are children.

hombre said...

Bump's statement in question is a poor choice of words, but the point of the article is right on.

I don't know about Rubio, but Trump is lying about Cruz.
http://www.redstate.com/absentee/2016/02/16/trump-camp-fabricates-ridiculous-fake-quote-tom-coburn-order-smear-ted-cruz/

Gabriel said...

Whoever says the rhyme did the crime.

mikee said...

I, for one, look forward to a Cruz-Hillary debate wherein Hill tries to pin the label of liar on Cruz. The nationwide laughter should be cathartic to both liberal progressives and normal people.

JamesB.BKK said...

Whoever rhymed it, crimed it.