Hypocrisy in Three Acts
…or the “Do as I say, not as I do” edition:
The Bush Administration
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to Turkey, on the subject of Turkish incursions into Northern Iraq (Kurdish territory):
“It’s very important that the Turks make this operation as short as possible and then leave,” Gates said before departing India. “They have to be mindful of Iraqi sovereignty. I measure quick in terms of days, a week or two, something like that, not months.”
Gates has the gall to say this as if we have any moral authority to demand rapid withdrawal of another country’s troops in Iraq. Turkey’s response? No timetables. Tell me if this quote sounds familiar:
“Our objective is clear, our mission is clear and there is no timetable until … those terrorist bases are eliminated,” senior Turkish envoy Ahmet Davutoglu said after talks with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari.
Hillary Clinton
After stirring up lots of hysteria in the blogosphere over the perception that Barack Obama’s failure to “reject” Louis Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic and divisive statements somehow made Obama anti-Semitic, Hillary Clinton found herself in the same pickle.
Clinton was questioned by Dallas station KTVT about comments by Adelfa Callejo, a local activist who supports Clinton candidacy. The interviewer quoted Callejo as saying “Obama’s problem is he happens to be black” and asked Clinton to respond.
…Clinton goes on to say that it’s historic to have a woman and African-American running against each other, to look at the record, etc., but when pressed, what happens?
The interviewer asked Clinton whether she rejected or denounced Callejo’s comment.
“People have every reason to express their opinions, I just don’t agree with that,” she said, adding “You know, this is a free country. People get to express their opinions.”
When confronted with her debate comments on this topic:
Clinton said: “I don’t see any comparison at all with what you’re referring to and I don’t know the facts of what you’re telling me over the TV. So I’m just going to repeat that I want people to judge us on the merits.”
Her aide backtracked on that later, saying she was caught off-guard and that “of course she denounces and rejects that kind of politics in any way, shape or form.”
So she denounces the politics? Or the racism? Either way, it seems like a politically expedient answer. Hillary Clinton hasn’t seemed to learn this: If you’re going to hold yourself out to be standing on a principle, you’d better make sure you stand on it all the time rather than only when it’s politically expedient.
Bill Cunningham, The “True Conservatives”, and Hack Radio
Speaking of political expedience, last week all the conservatives rallied behind John McCain when the New York Times insinuated that he might be having an affair. But today, the rallies were behind the obnoxious Bill Cunningham, the Ohio radio hack who insisted on referring to Barack Obama as Barack HUSSEIN Obama (despite Karl Rove’s admonition NOT to do that). Evidently when you’re a ‘true conservative’ it’s okay to villify the GOP candidate for having the balls to stand up when epithets are tossed, but sex, that’s completely out of the question. And so, the whipsawing of McCain begins, exposing the deep divide that is the Republican party today. What bothers me the most is how many people have lined up behind Cunningham, defending his indefensible tone and sneer as acceptable.
Technorati Tags: McCain, Clinton, Obama, hypocrisy, racism, Bill Cunningham, Turkey, Iraq, Bush