Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Hitchens walks among us still. What stake will slay this vampire?

I won't link directly to Chris Hitchens' latest attack on those awful, awful Clintons. You'll have to find it by way of riverdaughter's brilliant riposte, here. But I do want to repeat one of Hitchens' most obnoxious attacks:
In matters of foreign policy, it has been proved time and again, the Clintons are devoted to no interest other than their own. A president absolutely has to know of his chief foreign-policy executive that he or she has no other agenda than the one he has set. Who can say with a straight face that this is true of a woman whose personal ambition is without limit; whose second loyalty is to an impeached and disbarred and discredited former president; and who is ready at any moment, and on government time, to take a wheedling call from either of her bulbous brothers?
The Clinton Foundation is here. Spend a few minutes there, then tell me how "self-interested" the Clintons are. When Ford left the presidency, he played golf.

By the way -- just what has Chris Hitchens ever done for humanity? It is true that, when young, he reported from many foreign climes, but his motives for doing so were hardly selfless. He was paid for his work and wanted to establish his journalistic credentials.

"Personal ambition"? Well, anyone who runs for the highest office obviously has lots of the stuff. Obama's personal ambition was such that he ran for office without actually doing much of anything first. That, my friends, crosses the line separating ambition from gall -- which explains, I think, why the man got only 52% in a year when any other Democrat would have received a landslide victory.

Impeached? Bill Clinton's popularity increased when the Republicans brought nonsense charges against him.

"Discredited"? Let's talk about discredited, Chissikins. Let's look at your sorry-ass record.

In 1998, he befriended Ahmed Chalabi.

In 2002, he praised George W. Bush's "strong leadership."

In 2003, he argued for the Iraq war tirelessly. Here's some video to prove the point.

In 2004, he argued that Plame and Wilson were wrong -- Saddam really did go shopping for plutonium in Niger.

Later, he argued in The Nation that progressives should vote for Bush. (Do you think that The Nation would have allowed anyone to publish a pro-McCain piece in 2008? Nahhh...)

September, 2005: "A War to Be Proud of":
LET ME BEGIN WITH A simple sentence that, even as I write it, appears less than Swiftian in the modesty of its proposal: "Prison conditions at Abu Ghraib have improved markedly and dramatically since the arrival of Coalition troops in Baghdad"...
Well, enough. You know the man's history. I offer this brief refresher by way of asking one simple question: What more does Chris Hitchens have to do to be considered discredited?

In Deconstructing Harry, Woody Allen tells an obnoxious relative: "Actually, I think you're the opposite of paranoid. You go around under the delusion that people like you." He could have been talking about the war-loving Christopher Hitchens.

Riverdaughter's piece evinced a comment worthy of wider notice:
do you notice how everyone’s mum on W’s crimes against humanity but somehow still outraged by the pardon of Marc Rich? In the blissful harmony between W and Obama, only the Clintons remain the enemy.
Yeah. Why is that?

10 comments:

Gary McGowan said...

"In the blissful harmony between W and Obama, only the Clintons remain the enemy."

Joseph posed the question, "Yeah. Why is that?"

I'd like to propose another (And I'm sincerely interested to see the answer(s). ... What universe is the writer quoted above referring to?

Twilight said...

Oh, I'm so embarrassed about some of the big-mouthed Brits this side of the pond.

Chris Hitchens, Andrew Sullivan, Piers Morgan, Simon Cowell....sigh!

I don't agree with Joseph on Obama, but can't fault him on this one. ;-)

The Raving Badger said...

Chris Hitchens is a pimple on the ass of humanity. He has been wrong time and time again. I think his employer should fire his sorry ass as a means to cut back on the "fat" in their organization. Just getting rid of his expense account (i.e. employer paid bar tab) would probably save 5 or 6 jobs.

Perry Logan said...

There is no more despicable creature than a Clinton-hater.

Anonymous said...

"just what has Chris Hitchens ever done for humanity"

Nothing. He never saw a war he didn't love, except the ones the Israelis won. I think that's basically his shtick: romantic death. The man sucks, absolutely, totally and completely.

His brother Peter, although an arch-conservative, is more interesting, humane & thoughtful.

Anonymous said...

Forgive me, but I thought he was discredited.

Leave the poor drunken moron alone. I don't know why editors still give him gigs. I have long suspected that he is entirely pay to play these days. But the tosser has no credibility left.

Btw, can anyone persuade him to do some more waterboard testing? I loved the video. I played it at least 15 times.

Harry

DarkGravity said...

If that's the man's record then this attack is just one last desperate attempt to prove that they are not obsolete.

People in politics are career people. They don't care who's in power; they just want to get on their good side.

Edgeoforever said...

You left out from Snitchens stellar record his deranged attack on Mother Theresa. I think he dedicated a whole book to slandering her "The Missionary Position"

DancingOpossum said...

Because I am evil, I enjoyed his debunking of Mother Theresa. Also, his book debunking God was pretty dang good, and his book on Henry Kissinger as war criminal was very dang good.

Hitchens was born talented and brilliant, but he's wasted away all that promise in alcohol, resentment, and a vastly exxaggerated self-importance. He doesn't even know what he believes anymore, I'm convinced of it. Like Anonymous said, he's "strictly pay to play."

The ONLY reason this discredited and pitiful alcoholic is given any airtime is precisely because of his raging CDS, which he shares with most of the MCM. They loooove it that they can just wire him up and let him spew forth with the Clinton-bashing. And because he does have a history of brilliance albeit from way, waaaaay back, and speaks with a British accent, they think he's cool.

And he probably holds them in contempt and loathes them as much as he loathes (or pretends to loathe) the Clintons, but needs the gig to pay his bar tabs. And that is all.

Anonymous said...

Hitchens like every thoughtful creature puts toooo much importance on the office of POTUS and its occupant. His assbug over Clinton since 1992 consumed and destroyed him. He was a naif about America n'shit. If we abolish nukes and anything else one schmuck can kill everyone with, we can have good writing again and funner politics. It ain't gonna happen, so I'll pray for atheism's success. What do you got? Ann Coulter?