Sunday, August 31, 2008

The mind reels...

And the stomach turns.

The Washington Monthly
PROXIMITY TO RUSSIA IS IRRELEVANT.... On Friday, my friend Kevin Drum came up with a clever little way to preemptively mock Republicans' claims about Sarah Palin's foreign policy experience. "Isn't Alaska a central front in the new Cold War? That's foreign policy experience right there!" Kevin joked.

If only the Republican establishment wasn't serious about this. For example, Fox News' Steve Doocy, with a straight face, insisted, "[T]he other thing about her, she does know about international relations because she is right up there in Alaska right next door to Russia." (This led Jon Stewart to call Doocy a "moron.")

This morning, Cindy McCain made the exact same argument, telling George Stephanopoulos, in response to a question about national security experience, "[R]emember, Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia. It's not as if she doesn't understand what's at stake here."

Has Palin ever been to Russia? No. Has she ever demonstrated any expertise on U.S. policy towards Russia? No. Does she have any background in international relations at any level? No.

But for Republicans, the fact that she's lived near Russia is somehow a qualification for national office.

The mind reels.
I was born right next to Canada. Canada is bilingual, with French as an official language. Therefore, I can speak fluent French.

The right will go deep into the abyss of stupidity when defending a tribal elder. "You tribe bad, Og tribe good! You candidate bad juju!" No argument is too idiotic; no hypocritical double-standard is too shameless; no previously held belief is too sacred for the GOP. Every value is fungible*.

The GOP playbook should be titled, "The Principle and Practice of Paleolithic Politics."

* Correction: every value but one - WINNING.

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