Oh oh oh oh, Mr. Obama

[Kuciwalker]

There were plenty of nutters on the left calling anyone who agreed with those policies traitors.

[Q Classic]

There were plenty of nutters on the left calling anyone who agreed with those policies traitors.

True. Generally in response to the rightists. **** it, the country's going down the ****ter anyway, and it's been headed in that direction since Thomas Jefferson.

[Kuciwalker]

True. Generally in response to the rightists.

Is this some kind of moronic "you started it!" argument? Nutters are nutters.

It's touching that you accuse Drake of revisionism when you're the one wearing the partisan blinders.

[SpencerH]

Love the sig Kuci, I wish I'd seen the thread where that was said.

[Imran Siddiqui]

There were plenty of nutters on the left calling anyone who agreed with those policies traitors.

Far less than those on the right. I mean, Hell, Ann Coulter was still on all sorts of news shows hawking her books with titles like "Treason", etc.

[Dinner]

Right, which is why the ****ing nutters on the right called anyone disagreeing with those policies ****ing traitors.

**** you and your ****ing revisionism. **** all of you in the ear with a spiky dildo.

An excellent post.

[Drake Tungsten]

I mean, Hell, Ann Coulter was still on all sorts of news shows hawking her books with titles like "Treason", etc.

Ann Coulter

She takes simple trolls like those QCubed just bit on and uses them to make millions of dollars.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Far less than those on the right. I mean, Hell, Ann Coulter was still on all sorts of news shows hawking her books with titles like "Treason", etc.

Why do people continue to conflate folk like Coulter or Limbaugh with actual politicos? As Drake implies the more outlandish the better for the former. This is a far cry different than Members of Legislative or Executive impugning members of citizenry.

[Guynemer]

Correct me if I am wrong, as it has been quite a while, but didn't the White House Press Secretary tell people to "watch what they say," and didn't Cheney himself conflate opposing the Administration with treason?

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Don't remember that but memories are the first to fade. Cites or links welcome.

[Guynemer]

Not the best link in the world, but this is a place to start:

http://www.brendan-nyhan.com/blog/gop-dissent-attacks.html

To be fair, I didn't see anything specifically about Cheney in there, but there are myriad other examples.

Highlights:

December 2001: In response to Democratic plans to question parts of the USA Patriot Act during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, John Ashcroft suggests that people who disagree with the administration's anti-terrorism policies are on the side of the terrorists. "To those who pit Americans against immigrants, and citizens against non-citizens; to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies, and pause to America's friends. They encourage people of good will to remain silent in the face of evil."

May 2004: After Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) said "the direction [in Iraq] has got be changed or it is unwinnable," Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) said Democrats are "basically giving aid and comfort to the enemy." Similarly, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called President Bush an "incompetent leader," House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) said Pelosi "apparently is so caught up in partisan hatred for President Bush that her words are putting American lives at risk."

January 2006: President Bush suggests that "defeatists" on Iraq are disloyal by contrasting them with a "loyal opposition," stating that the American people "know the difference between a loyal opposition that points out what is wrong, and defeatists who refuse to see that anything is right."

September 2006: During a press conference the day after the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11th, House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said, "I wonder if they [Democrats] are more interested in protecting the terrorists than protecting the American people," adding, "They certainly do not want to take the terrorists on and defeat them." When asked if he intended to accuse Democrats of treason, Boehner replied, "I said I wonder if they're more interested in protecting the terrorists... They certainly don't want to take the terrorists on in the field."

February 2007: White House spokesman Tony Snow said that "Osama bin Laden thought that a lack of American resolve was a key reason he could inspire people to come after us after September 11th. I am not accusing members of the Senate of inviting carnage on the United States of America. I'm simply saying you think about what impact it may have." Rep. Don Young (R-AK) twice repeated a quotation falsely attributed to Abraham Lincoln on the House floor, which states that "Congressmen who willfully take action during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs, and should be arrested, exiled or hanged."

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Seems to me that those examples (save the Don Young idiocy) were examples of understanding the implications of free speech and moreover were an attempt to council other politicos on the other side of the aisle on the wisdom of some tactics and the political price they might pay if they proceeded down that path. It did not appear to be an attempt to stifle the general populace.

Actually the John Ashcroft quote is pretty benign and encourages tolerance of others. (immigrants and noncitizens)

[Guynemer]

to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Still seems pretty weak tea and a bit of a stretch. Hyperbole certainly. Suggestions of treason not so much.

[Q Classic]

True. Generally in response to the rightists.

Is this some kind of moronic "you started it!" argument? Nutters are nutters.

It's touching that you accuse Drake of revisionism when you're the one wearing the partisan blinders.

Not at all.

I'm pointing out that he can't tar the left when the right does it too.