PARTISANSHIP

Hugh Hewitt takes a brief swipe at yours truly for calling him a partisan, as if partisanship is a bad thing:

Keep an eye out for the folks slinging around the word “partisan.” It is often a giveaway of hackery of the worst sort — shorthand for an admission of incompetence in the art of argument coupled with an arrogance that say’s the speaker doesn’t feel the need to persuade, just dictate.

Huh? That wasn’t my point. There’s a real case for partisanship in our political system, but it’s not always compatible with being intellectually honest. No one is going to agree with everything one party stands for; and if you’re a writer, it seems to me you should say where you agree and disagree with the party you broadly support. But Hewitt boasts that his website is designed to destroy the power of the Democratic party. Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t think he has criticized this president once in the past several months. His response might be that of course he hasn’t. The task for him is not thinking and writing what he believes, but writing and promoting anything that helps one party stay in power. He deserves credit for admitting this. But I don’t think he should be swinging the word “hackery” around too much. Do you?

THE MASTURNADERS! Kerry liberals start using flash animation against the overweening bore.

527 SLIME: Two ads – one against Marilyn Musgrave, and one against Kerry – both seem to me to be over the top. Taking minor votes and making them seem like someone’s entire philosophy is classic negative campaigning, but it’s often grotesquely unfair. I don’t think Musgrave opposes helping our troops. I just think she’s a crazed fundamentalist. Ditto Gary Bauer’s latest ad saying that John Kerry has not opposed marriage rights for gay couples. You’d think from the ad that Kerry has backed equal rights. No such luck. The lesson for Democrats is that the far right will slime you on gays whatever you do or say. People like Bauer have few scruples in this respect. So why not stand up for what’s right?