Sydney Blumenthal: Republican

Sydney Blumenthal has written some wonderful and amazing political commentary in his day. He is clearly a brilliant person who knows exactly what he is doing at all times. Therefore it is curious that he would join ranks with the likes of Richard Mellon Scaife and Bill Kristol's The Weekly Standard and National Review to pile on with the Carvilles and the Penns and the Clintons to amp up the "negatives" of Barack Obama. Why? Why are these "Democrats" behaving like Republicans? And doesn't that tell you that they are not really Democrats?

Your book, Sydney, "The Clinton Wars," is one of my favorites of the era. I, for one, cannot believe after writing such a book you could ever do this to the progressive Democratic candidate for president -- and the first African-American presidential candidate to make it this far in the nominating contest in American history.

Sydney, Matt Drudge wrongfully accused you of spousal abuse. Now you feel it is politic to join ranks with this person and his ilk? Just to prove your loyalty to the Clintons?

Sydney, this is on the level of John McCain joining George W. Bush at the hip after Karl Rove and his campaign slimed his "black baby" -- the McCains' daughter they adopted from Bangladesh. Thus, Rove turned a positive into a negative. Disgraceful.

Sydney, this is in the same category as Hillary Clinton genuflecting to Richard Mellon Scaife and Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh even after they all had publicly accused her husband of the murder of Vince Foster.

One quality the Republicans can never put down the Democrats as deficient in is their truly Biblical level of the capacity for forgiveness.

Comments

[gjck28]

Honest to God, what planet do you live on? The entire foundation of your argument is that Democrats act like Republicans when they score political points against each other. That somehow you equate Democrats going in for the kill with some practice utterly foreign to them. How enlightening. Democrats -- just like evil Republicans -- do what they have to do to win. Democrats, I'm here to tell you, have no moral high ground. Guess you forgot the anti-Catholic bashing Kennedy endured (during the primaries). Perhaps it's slipped your mind Ed Muskie's downfall (during the primaries). And then there's President TED Kennedy (never quite made it out of the primaries). Grow up. You remind me of the chief of police in the movie, "Casablanca":

"I'm shocked, SHOCKED to find GAMBLING going on here!"

"Your winnings, sir."

"Thank you."

[burnt]

posing as Democrats

[jhNY]

Blumenthal's big problem is he is not campaigning for Obama, the progressive Democratic candidate. Sadly, he did not realize the importance of this newly-minted party, since it only exists in the minds of progressive bloggers writing in to progressive blogs progressively. Blumenthal thought he was in the midst of the nomination process of the Democratic Party, not realizing that, once Obama was coronated by the progressive Democratic party, he should be given the nomination of the Democratic party without having to campaign further. That makes Blumenthal old, a practitioner of old politics who was possibly admirable once not so long ago, but no longer, who now must be called out on high moral grounds by a high-minded progressive, of whom there are apprently legions, each with a computer and spare time for disappointed outrage.

[LittleBrother]

"Sydney"? Since when? Isn't it "Sidney"?

And didn't he get busted for a DUI in January? So maybe his Mr. Hyde persona is conjured up by Demon Alcohol, to do its Master's nefarious bidding and elect a Republic in Dem's clothing to occupy the Oval Office.

[tinarm]

The Clinton's and people who work with them are no different than the republicans. I have been saying this since January. Why has it taken so long for others to recognize it?

[wakupmagy]

Dear Professor Palermo,

In 1998 you must have watched your friend Sydney Blumenthal lead a campagin to smear and "obliterate" a young intern. At that time, Blumenthal was working for Hillary Clinton.

You must have watched him standing on the steps of the courthouse after giving testimony in the Grand Jury and manufacture a wholly untrue account of the questions he answered inside. He wove a story full of lies and self-aggrandizement counting, no doubt, on the general rule that GJ testimony is not made public.

It is not "curious" that he freely uses the worst tactics taken from the Republican playbook. It was always thus.

[linreigu]

Sidney Blumenthal is a ruthless and semi corrupt operator. It's true of his personal life as well. I have personal experience of his modus operandi: http://ringmar.net/toomanymangoes/?p=213