Joe Klein ... Sucks!

“The Patriot Act is…awesome.” “We should…cut special education funding.” “Blue Oyster Cult is most definitely…the greatest rock band in history…” Little noticed by many, including me, my friend Greg Sargent found an interesting use of ellipses (those dot…dot…dots) in Joe Klein’s column last week. Klein, quoting the much maligned interview DNC Chair Howard Dean gave on radio, writes: “The party chairman, Howard Dean, was not inaccurate when he said, "The idea that we are going to win this war ... is just plain wrong." If Dean had added the word militarily, most generals would agree with him. The trouble is, Dean—as always—seemed downright gleeful about the bad news. He seemed to be rooting for defeat." Gleeful? It certainly looks like it. Stop the presses, Howard Dean was happy that we can’t win in Iraq! But wait, what was in the quote, where Klein uses the ellipses? “Unfortunately.” “The idea that we are going to win this war is, unfortunately, just plain wrong.” Now, criticize Dean for saying he thought the idea we can win is wrong, but don’t call him gleeful about it, when he made it clear that he sees that as "unfortunate." You can also listen to the interview