Recently, I wrote a blog entry for www.dukecityfix.com about the public clash of two New Mexican Republicans. In public comments on that blog (see the link above), a very polite Mr Bohnsack respectfully approaches me for an education regarding a parenthetical remark in that blog entry.

Before I oblige his gracious request, I have to wonder: why doesn’t he want to talk about the “swell” story? Oh, he might say it is boring or he has nothing to add. But, before we follow his tangent, let’s not forget what he distracts us from: Republicans are not as united as they pretend (or as they vote). There are important divisions within the Republican party and when Duhbya’s days are done and he rides off into the sunset, it will be very interesting to see where the power goes. My money is on Karl Rove, god’s architect of victory.

As to Matt’s inquiry, let me first thank him for raising me into the company of the Founders. Yes, I am a blogger, a pamphleteer, child of Tom Paine (no kin to Greg). Yes, over two hundered years after the Revolution and the ratifying of the Constitution with its Bill of Rights, I am the epitome of all that. Thanks, Matt, you flatter me, even more than you flatter me by suggesting that I could educate you.

Now, I will agree with Matt that corporate news, like all corporations, is to be regarded with suspicion. Corporations put profits before everything, including the Constitution, the well-being of their workers, the health of their customers. That’s why — libertarians, please look away for a moment — we need laws to curtail man’s greed, selfishness and cruelty. I’m no friend of corporations and I am a natural ally of any schmo sitting at a keyboard expounding on the Truth. Matt and I are brothers.

I have nothing to teach Matt about rhetoric. In short order, he equates bloggers with the Free Press and then suggests that I would try to silence bloggers. Matt, I have 5 or 6 of my own and read dozens, including yours. Find someone I’ve ever tried to silence.

Understand, I’m really tired of this technique of redefining the argument. I’ve watched extreme conservatives hijack public policy with this since Goldwater. Define the terms, create the strawmen, set the agenda.

Still, it is very successful. My response is proof that you can goad people into following you on any tangent. So, though I owe Matt no explanation for a parenthetical remark — 10 words out of 300 — I’ll play along.

In the last 18 months or so, conservatives attacked CBS and stopped them from showing a biography of Raygun. Before it appeared on TV, before most of us had any idea what it might say, conservatives silenced Big Media. I don’t really care — I wouldn’t have watched — but I care about censorship, as I know Matt does.

So, one wonders, what’s that got to do with Rathergate. First, CBS News was planning a different report relevant to the election to follow the one that flowered into Blathergate. And, based on the fallout, they canned that one. I wish I could tell you what it was about, but I didn’t get to see it because censors scared the shit out of CBS. A nail in the coffin? Or a knife to the balls?

Second, the furor over a supposedly faked letter completely drowned out all other facts. There was simply no discussion of how nobly our War President served during Vietnam. No, it was all about fonts and CBS’s liberal bias (Joe Monahan has a great summary of Rather’s long career.).

Liberal bias of the Media. Another gem foisted on us by the Radical Right. And, setting up their own Isvestia — Fox — they explain all media is biased and their Pravda is just one small correction to the leftward tilt. Yeah, right.

Finally, it is nauseating to see the word Watergate twisted into Rathergate (after countless other -gates). Let us not forget that Watergate was a symptom and symbol of astonishing corruption at the top of a paranoid Republican administration. A criminal Republican administration that in turn provided top players in the current administration AND which pales in comparison regarding secrecy. A Republican administration brought down, in part, by a Free Press not nearly so corporate and unaided by bloggers.

The Radical Right works steadily to undermine your confidence in absolutely anything outside of their control. Don’t trust the corporate media (except for the biggest cable news service, Fox, or the most widely heard commentator, Lush Limbaugh). Don’t trust the judges, most of whom were appointed by conservatives. Don’t trust the RINOs who want to rein in their fellow Republicans. Don’t trust the queers, the liberals, the Democrats, the non-Evangelicals or — god forbid — the atheists. No, don’t trust anyone but those holding hands with Duhbya.

And remember, history proves the Right is never wrong. Yeah, right. mjh

PS: Most of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudis; none were Iraqis. No WMDs were ever found in Iraq. There were more terrorist acts worldwide last year than ever before. Facts.