Stay in the Loop
BSR publishes on a weekly schedule, with an email newsletter every Wednesday and Thursday morning. There’s no paywall, and subscribing is always free.
Who put the smirk in Smerconish?
Patrick D. Hazard
His master's voice:
Who put the smirk in Smerconish?
PATRICK D.HAZARD
"Are you tired of the total BS of rampant PC?", the Philadelphia talk radio host Michael Smerconish asks rhetorically of potential buyers of his new book, Muzzled. In the process he smirks over a swatch of quotes from politically incorrect righties uncritically praising his book (although even a congenital lefty like me would agree with Smerconish on the futility and fatuousness of PC.)
Smerconish describes himself as a 44-year old Republican who hasn't missed an election since he was 18, having voted for Reagan and every other Republican since. (See "Cancer That's Attacking Our Body Politic," Daily News, June 8). I'm a 79-year-old independent who, alas, cast his first vote in 1948 for Tom Dewey, having been so turned off by Progressive Party candidate Henry Wallace's guitar-wielding cowboy VP running mate, Glenn Taylor, that I overcompensated
right past Harry Truman. Except for that youthful mistake, I've voted mainly for Democrats for president (except for Ralph Nader), but mostly
independently for all other offices, local and national.
Smerconish makes much of Texas Dem Ben Barnes sticking by Bush on "My President, Wrong or Rightist" grounds. Ben's the guy who owned up (on “60 Minutes”) to using his influence to get W. into the Texas Air National Guard's Champagne Squadron (and thus out of harm's way in Vietnam). Smerconish makes no mention of Bush's having never been punished for going AWOL to Alabama to work for a family friend’s election campaign. (No mention of the foul way the Bushies maligned John Kerry over his real service in Vietnam, either.) No mention as well of the SEC not punishing Bush for his later insider training in the fourth and last of his serial bankruptcies. How did Bush become a millionaire after so many failures? By parlaying his Harcum "retirement" money into a Texas Rangers sinecure, in which the people of Arlington, Texas, paid for "his" stadium. Nice worklessness if you can get it!
Indeed, there was no Smerky mention of the foul Karl Rove when his agents spread the calumny in the 2000 South Carolina primary that Senator John McCain had fathered a black child when McCain and his wife and his wife had actually adopted her). No mention of Republicans’ questioning triple amputee Max Cleland's patriotism, either. There are
worse things than BUCK FUSH T-shirts— namely the politically and foully incorrect way our President ran for the White House twice. My President, right or wrong? What kind of ethics is that?
Bush’s sophomoric "Bring 'em on!" rhetoric? Come on. GWB's arrogant dismissal of the press as recently as his Camp David dePress Conference with the prime minister of Denmark suggests that the gentlemanly C Yalie and partying Harvard MBA isn’t even educable. Does this man deserve to be coddled because he's got us all in a mess in Iraq?
Who put the smirk in Smerconish? Why, Michael did, picking up that immature conduct from his politically incorrigible President.
To view reader responses, click here.
Who put the smirk in Smerconish?
PATRICK D.HAZARD
"Are you tired of the total BS of rampant PC?", the Philadelphia talk radio host Michael Smerconish asks rhetorically of potential buyers of his new book, Muzzled. In the process he smirks over a swatch of quotes from politically incorrect righties uncritically praising his book (although even a congenital lefty like me would agree with Smerconish on the futility and fatuousness of PC.)
Smerconish describes himself as a 44-year old Republican who hasn't missed an election since he was 18, having voted for Reagan and every other Republican since. (See "Cancer That's Attacking Our Body Politic," Daily News, June 8). I'm a 79-year-old independent who, alas, cast his first vote in 1948 for Tom Dewey, having been so turned off by Progressive Party candidate Henry Wallace's guitar-wielding cowboy VP running mate, Glenn Taylor, that I overcompensated
right past Harry Truman. Except for that youthful mistake, I've voted mainly for Democrats for president (except for Ralph Nader), but mostly
independently for all other offices, local and national.
Smerconish makes much of Texas Dem Ben Barnes sticking by Bush on "My President, Wrong or Rightist" grounds. Ben's the guy who owned up (on “60 Minutes”) to using his influence to get W. into the Texas Air National Guard's Champagne Squadron (and thus out of harm's way in Vietnam). Smerconish makes no mention of Bush's having never been punished for going AWOL to Alabama to work for a family friend’s election campaign. (No mention of the foul way the Bushies maligned John Kerry over his real service in Vietnam, either.) No mention as well of the SEC not punishing Bush for his later insider training in the fourth and last of his serial bankruptcies. How did Bush become a millionaire after so many failures? By parlaying his Harcum "retirement" money into a Texas Rangers sinecure, in which the people of Arlington, Texas, paid for "his" stadium. Nice worklessness if you can get it!
Indeed, there was no Smerky mention of the foul Karl Rove when his agents spread the calumny in the 2000 South Carolina primary that Senator John McCain had fathered a black child when McCain and his wife and his wife had actually adopted her). No mention of Republicans’ questioning triple amputee Max Cleland's patriotism, either. There are
worse things than BUCK FUSH T-shirts— namely the politically and foully incorrect way our President ran for the White House twice. My President, right or wrong? What kind of ethics is that?
Bush’s sophomoric "Bring 'em on!" rhetoric? Come on. GWB's arrogant dismissal of the press as recently as his Camp David dePress Conference with the prime minister of Denmark suggests that the gentlemanly C Yalie and partying Harvard MBA isn’t even educable. Does this man deserve to be coddled because he's got us all in a mess in Iraq?
Who put the smirk in Smerconish? Why, Michael did, picking up that immature conduct from his politically incorrigible President.
To view reader responses, click here.
Sign up for our newsletter
All of the week's new articles, all in one place. Sign up for the free weekly BSR newsletters, and don't miss a conversation.
