or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
November 12, 2006
Everything In Politics Is Very Simple, Except Of Course When It Involves Wrongdoing By Me And My Friends, When Suddenly The World Is Filled With Shades Of Grey
There's one thing we know about Doug "Fucking Stupidest Guy on the Face of the Earth" Feith: he's not afraid to make stark moral judgments.
For instance, here's Feith in a 2002 speech:
However much the language of morality elicits sniffs from some of our sophisticated critics abroad and at home, we don't flinch from using it. Moral clarity is a strategic asset.
Here's a bit of his 2003 article "Strategy and the Idea of Freedom":
President Reagan's talk of democracy and good-versus-evil and his exhortation to tear down the Berlin Wall were widely criticized, even ridiculed, as unsophisticated and de-stabilizing. But it's now widely understood as having contributed importantly to the greatest victory in world history...
God, I can't wait until he finds out about this new Washington Post op-ed, with its moral relativism and mealy-mouthed equivocation! I bet he's going to EXCORIATE it!
Rumsfeld is a bundle of paradoxes, like a fascinating character in a work of epic literature. And as my high school teachers drummed into my head, the best literature reveals that humans are complex. They are not the all-good or all-bad, all-brilliant or all-dumb figures that inhabit trashy novels and news stories. Fine literature teaches us the difference between appearance and reality.-- "The Donald Rumsfeld I Know," by Douglas J. Feith
ALSO: I wonder if by giving this piece the title "The Donald Rumsfeld I Know," headline writers at the Post were having a little fun with Feith.
Posted at November 12, 2006 07:18 PM | TrackBackInterestingly, the Post used the title "The Donald Rumsfeld I Know"
The Houston Chronicle used the more accurate title "The real Rumsfeld I knew". More accurate because the article is about Feith's time working with Rummy.
Posted by: SPIIDERWEBâ„¢ at November 12, 2006 11:02 PMI may wish to play Devil's Advocate a little here...but I think Feith is partially right, even if he doesn't know it, in saying that Reagan's "talk" contributed. After all, it sure suckered a lot of people in Eastern Europe.
Posted by: En Ming Hee at November 13, 2006 12:48 AMHey, Hitler was a complex human. Not all-good or all-bad. Kinda like Rumsfeld.
Reagan's belligerent talk strengthened the hand of the paranoid hard-liners in the Soviet leadership and made it much more dificult for democratizing reformers to make headway. In a less hostile external environment, the USSR would have mellowed much sooner--and without the catastrophic consequences for most of the population that its eventual collapse brought on.
The bellicose rhetoric of the Bush administration is having a similar effect on Iran.
Posted by: Jean at November 13, 2006 03:38 AMShorter Feith, '02 edition: Ignorance is strength.
Shorter Feith, '06 postelection edition: ....Doh!
Posted by: Alex at November 13, 2006 05:01 AMMe, I'm glad you keep a tight landlordly hold on your very own headlines.
Posted by: Jesus B. Ochoa at November 13, 2006 11:39 AM
