Right Wing Watch points out an interesting little juxtaposition. Jonah Goldberg of the National Review wrote an op-ed in the LA Times taking Mitt Romney to task for caving to wingnuts like Bryan Fischer in getting rid of a gay foreign policy spokesman. And he was pretty blunt about it:
“If Mitt Romney can be pushed around, intimidated, coerced, co-opted by a conservative radio talk show host in Middle America, then how is he going to stand up to the Chinese? How is he going to stand up to Putin?” So asked Bryan Fischer, a radio host with the American Family Assn., after claiming credit for Richard Grenell’s scalp.
Grenell is the openly gay former foreign policy spokesman for the Romney campaign. Before that, he worked for Ambassador John R. Bolton at the United Nations, easily the most revered diplomatic official among the base of the Republican Party since Jeane Kirkpatrick.
I don’t think Fischer deserves the “credit” he’s claiming, but it does remind me of the old line from Winston Churchill about how an appeaser is someone who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. The reality be damned, it certainly appears that the Romney campaign fed Grenell to the crocs.
And yet just last week, Goldberg went on Fischer’s radio show, where Fischer introduced him as “one of my favorite writers” and Goldberg said it was “fantastic to be here.” He did that while Fischer was demanding Grennell’s scalp, which he now claims to be opposed to. Why didn’t he say anything about it then?
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cjtotalbro
May 11, 2012 at 10:37 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
God, Goldberg and Fischer on one show may be the only possible way to overcome the before now untouchable level of radio hackdom that is the Sean Hannity Show.
Enkidum
May 11, 2012 at 10:38 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Bolton is revered? Jeebus. The man’s a vicious moron.
Trebuchet
May 11, 2012 at 10:42 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
That’s pretty much WHY he’s revered by those who do so.
jimvj
May 11, 2012 at 11:36 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hell, Bryan Fischer took Romney to task for not standing up to wing-nuts like Bryan Fischer!
Wing-nut world is like bizarro world on quaaludes!
observer
May 11, 2012 at 12:04 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
To answer your last question, for the same reason he didn’t correct his spurious claim to Pulitzer nominations until caught out on them. Because he’s a dishonest hack without an ounce of either moral or intellectual integrity.
Reginald Selkirk
May 11, 2012 at 12:19 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Which reminds me, Goldberg was on NPR’s Morning Edition on May 2 to plug his most recent book. This is a good example by Steve Inskeep of how to interview someone you disagree with, without shouting them down or letting them walk all over you:
Do Liberals Live Under A ‘Tyranny Of Cliches’?
slc1
May 11, 2012 at 1:31 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Apparently, Bolton is not opposed to same sex marriage.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gop-treads-lightly-on-gay-marriage-issue/2012/05/10/gIQAk4LtGU_story.html
d cwilson
May 11, 2012 at 2:14 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Wait, which one is a vicious moron again? Bolton or Goldberg?
d cwilson
May 11, 2012 at 2:16 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
FIFY
Brony
May 11, 2012 at 2:20 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
His principles don’t include being morally honest when it benefits the tribe.
It’s not uniquely Republican or Conservative, but it is nauseating.
cjtotalbro
May 11, 2012 at 3:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Alex Pareene over at Salon absolutely destroyed Goldberg in a post yesterday.
Highly recommend it.
Reginald Selkirk
May 11, 2012 at 3:20 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
That sounds kind of interesting.