Yeah, I know, it’s been a while but sometimes real life intervenes and some things take a hiatus. This blog has been on a hiatus but I’ll be back to my old semi-irregular posting non-schedule now that things have calmed down and life has gotten considerably saner, at least in our household if not the rest of the world.
I saw a quote today and figured it was as good a candidate as any for a bit of a test. We’re hearing so much these days from the reactionaries on the conservative side about how Democrats and other assorted anti-Iraq Fiasco types are “emboldening the enemy” simply by pointing out the endless failures of this administration’s policies. It amazes me really. We can throw out the old Teddy Roosevelt quote (he being a noted America hater you know) where he said:
The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole.
Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile.
To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.
but the fundamental message in this quote is apparently so abhorrent to the current conservative mindset that I’ve yet to see anyone actually address the substance of it. They merely do the virtual equivalent of sticking their fingers in their ears and squawking loudly so they won’t have acknowledge it.
Then of course there was the recent phony “Lincoln” quote drummed up by J. Michael Waller and regurgitated by Frank Gaffney in his Washington Times column to which I would link except it has now been removed from the WashTimes site because the glaringly obvious fraud it contains was apparently too embarrassing even for them. But that didn’t stop Rep. Don Young (R-AK) from repeating it on the floor of the House the other day. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story, I always say.
But, like I said, I ran across this particular quote the other day and thought I’d post it so everyone (all three of you who might be reading this thing) could spend a day or so trying to guess who it might be. I have taken a slight liberty which will be explained later:
As to the mode of terminating the war, and securing peace, the President is equally wandering and indefinite. First, it is to be done by a more vigorous prosecution of the war in the vital parts of the enemy’s country; and, after apparently talking himself tired on this point, the President drops down into a half despairing tone, and tells us that “with a people distracted and divided by contending factions, and a government subject to constant changes, by successive revolutions, the continued success of our arms may fail to secure a satisfactory peace.” Then he suggests the propriety of wheedling the Iraqi people to desert the counsels of their own leaders, and trusting in our protection to set up a government from which we can secure a satisfactory peace; telling us that “this may become the only mode of obtaining such a peace.” But soon he falls into doubt of this too; and then drops back on to the already half abandoned ground of “more vigorous prosecution.” All this shows that the President is, in no wise, satisfied with his own positions. … His mind, tasked beyond its power, is running hither and thither, like some tortured creature on a burning surface, finding no position on which it can settle down and be at ease.
Again, it is a singular omission in this message that it nowhere intimates when the President expects the the war to terminate. … As I have before said, he knows not where he is. He is a bewildered, confounded, and miserably perplexed man. God grant he may be able to show there is not something about his conscience more painful than all his mental perplexity!
Have fun, I’ll post the correct answer in a day or so.