Today's Laugh At Andrew's Expense...

Amongst Andrew Sullivan's many virtues, being irony proof shines through in today's torture post. As usual, what he's really interested in is getting hissy about conservatives, but he still manages to come across as a complete dink on the whole issue. Here's the howler, a Steve Walt quote, that is ironic beyond words:

[I]f you genuinely believe in the rule of law, you can't invoke political expediency as a guide to whether possible crimes should be investigated and prosecuted. And the fact that the Attorney-General has decided to go forward should be seen as very positive sign, because it shows that he is willing to fulfill his constitutional responsibilities even if it is politically inconvenient for the president who appointed him. I have no doubt that the president would prefer to "look forward," because an investigation and/or prosecution will drive both the CIA and the right-wing media types crazy and because he's got enough alligators to wrestle with already. But he also promised us that he would end the politicization of the Department of Justice that his predecessor practiced, and Holder's decision, however inconvenient for Obama, is a reassuring sign that there is still life in the U.S. Constitution.

But invoking political expediency is exactly what Eric Holder did: He decided against any sort of meaningful investigation (or prosecution) by narrowing the focus of the investigation just enough to exclude those who actually bear the ultimate responsibility for sanctioning the use of torture. Holder played it safe... He's going after a couple of drones who were just following orders while leaving the Big Boys undisturbed.

And let's not forget, less than 48 hours ago, Andrew was writing that we all needed to cut Obama some "slack" on the wimpyness of the Holder torture investigation because Obama had a lot of work to do. Or something.

Long-term loss of short-term memory must be a bitch.

Comments

[markg8]

Dead horse, meet Dennis and his stick.

[Billy]

yet for some reason, mark, you keep coming back.

[Dennis the Peasant]

Not anymore.

[PeterUK]

Billy,
There is a reason

[Mike C.]

Is there some unknown reason why any sentinent life form in the universe gives two hoots in hell what Andrew Sullivan thinks about anything ? I'm serious - who cares ?

[Masturbatin' Pete]

Mike C:

I tend to agree: in general, the less we hear from and about St. Andrew of the Sacred Heart-Ache, the better.

But.

The man is often categorized by the mainstream media as a conservative. I'm not happy about it, but when he speaks, the MSM thinks that a conservative is speaking. It's important for conservatives to challenge Sullivan, and to make it clear that he's not speaking for conservatives or anyone other than himself.

Similarly, the man has a "Last True Conservative" pose. Basically, it seems to me like he wakes up, turns on his computer, reads the news, has an internal reaction, and whatever that reaction is, that's true conservatism. It's nonsense of course, but he's doing damage to conservatism by holding himself out as the keeper of the flame of True Conservatism.

If Sullivan just came out and said "you know what? I've changed. I'm a liberal now," I think we'd all forget about him. There are thousands of liberal bloggers who I don't give a moment's thought to. But Sullivan can't do that because it's not really true. He's not a liberal. He's anti-Bush with every fiber of his being, and that makes him anti-everything-Bush-and-his-supporters-touch, which in turn makes him pro-Obama. I have some other hypotheses for why he likes Obama so much, but I'm trying to avoid slander here.

[Uncle Fester]

Poor Mark.

When the purges start, the Kos types will be among the first groups of useless idiots to go to the gulag.

[David]

"Not anymore."

Banned?

[Dennis the Peasant]

MP-

Exactly.

David-

Yup. Went off the dead end yesterday and started calling me a fucktard. I warned him, he called me the same thing again today, and then I banned him. It finished up with him sending me a nasty email about being a hack. Very strange.

[Simon]

Sin bin or send off Dennis ?

I, for one would miss Marky, he always handed out soft core abuse pretty freely, I suppose the escalation to hard core occurred when he came under a bit more pressure recently.

I have certainly called him worse than a fucktard myself, and look forward to doing so again.

[elliottg]

fuckt*rd. That Mark continued to see you as reasonable when you were obviously playing stupid or just yanking his chain amazed me, but he tried to treat your syphilitic rants seriously and see what it got him.

[Simon]

Elliot -

Doesn't your use of the phrase 'syphilitic rant' cause your own comment to come within the category of 'syphilitic rant'

[Blue Octopi]

Ooh looky, here's another would-be comment martyr in Elliott.

Man, you dudes are starting to remind me (metaphorically, of course) of the Japanese soldiers in "Letters from Iwo Jima." You know, pulling the pins on your 'fuckt*rd' grenades and going out in a blaze of glory deep in your caves.

Guess it's not so fun hanging around anymore, huh? Drama queens.

[Dennis the Peasant]

Elliott-

You're lame. At least Mark put some effort into getting banned.

[Dennis the Peasant]

There must something in the water, because it's not like I've changed my political stance on anything here in the past week or so.

[badanov]

I would read the first ten words of so of Mark8's stuff and then skip over the rest of his comments. They were predictable.

But I also agree banning him takes away a chew toy, but then there's always elliotg

[PeterUK]

badanov,
Elliott is OK for plinking.

[Jim Ryan]

Very strange....there must be something in the water

It only seems strange if you don't long to dissolve your will into the General Will, as leftists do. Their man turned out to be an incompetent narcissist, thus postponing the longed-for dissolution of self into General Will for years. Yet again. After the disappointment of HillaryCare. And Al. And Kerry. Eventually one loses it. The alternative of liberty, self-reliance, and charity has no appeal. Ennui kicks in, and after that rage. Then, the lizard brain slithers out unrestrained.

[Guesst]

re: The banned

I was so embarrassed by the rhetoric that I just skipped it by. There's no point in answering someone who toes the party line to such a degree they are being intellectually dishonest. Ack.

I was more interested in obsessing on how someone manages to run a (successful?) business, and still has time to post on numerous rightie and leftie sites, even finding the time to organize a "Honk for Healthcare" rally (of two!), disrupt his local townhall meeting, etc.

Signed, Curious

[PeterUK]

Gets paid for it?

[Mike C.]

If "Rear" Admiral Andy is a conservative, I'm the freaking Queen of England.

I can think of one other well-known (but fading fast) blogger like that out there. Runs some blog that one might think is sports-related from the name...

Your 15 minutes are up, boys - move on.

[har]

Andrew was trained as a graduate student by one of the only conservatives (and a Straussian to boot) at Harvard--Harvey Mansfield. He did some good work, especially his analysis of Bloom's popular book The Closing of the American Mind..... But he soon thereafter came out of the closet and it's been all down hill since. Not to say the two are correlated, coming out of the closet and improvement in quality of work, I dare say is more often the case, but in Andrew's particular case it's just the fact of the matter--decline. Slow at the beginning, very rapid now.
He did what so many other students of Straussians do, not able to nail a tenure track appointment at a leading university, and too ambitious for settling to teach at second rate universities or colleges, he went the route of influencer. A career path in gov't, being a Brit, and in the habit of advertising for taking loads and other sexual fun on the internet, he wisely avoided and instead went into journalism. Marked controversy, which to Andrew is success, early on. The Bell Curve controversty etc... Lately, Andrew's propensity to hate or love first and think second, on the basis of this pleasure or pain, has only become greater as his decline speeds up. Second, it's mostly about money. He plays the side that pays the best, and is open to change at any given time. The well is drying up in America and he is positioning himself to return to Europe. He's credentialed himself to talk about America, and abusing her will pay the bills for sometime to come.

[PeterUK]

"The well is drying up in America and he is positioning himself to return to Europe. He's credentialed himself to talk about America, and abusing her will pay the bills for sometime to come."

He picked the wrong time,after this bunch of shysters and mountebanks get thrown out at the next election,there won't be another socialist government for a generation.

[Uncle Fester]

"after this bunch of shysters and mountebanks get thrown out at the next election,there won't be another socialist government for a generation."

Hmmmm...

Wasn't I pointing this out to The Banned One just a few days ago?

The idiots actually believed all the lies - how were we to know? Ah, well, too late to "ask" the psychologist who said it would take another twenty years; unmarked graves are kind of hard to find.

[PeterUK]

Fester,
You wouldn't believe the visceral hatred there is for the Labour government,Gordon Brown in particular. The public simply do not trust a single word the government says,from swine flu to global warming,via the economy,immigration,education,employment and all places North and South.
Spin simply spins itself out.