Franken-Lies-And-the-Lying-Liars-Who-Tell

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Who Created the Tone?
"Scumbag," "sociopath," "perpetual preener," "rapist," "unserious," "craven miscreant.”
1 Sound like anyone you know? I mean, besides Steven Seagal? 2 Actually, it was the
forty-second President of the United States, Bill Clinton, who was called all of these things.
In my day, we never used such language to describe the President, unless he was a real asshole
like Nixon.
Remember during the 2000 campaign how then Governor Bush kept saying he was
going to "change the tone in Washington"? That really touched a nerve. The partisan rancor
in D.C. had led millions of Americans to stop following politics and instead spend hours a
day downloading pornography from the Internet. Where did this malicious tone come from in
the first place? I submit that it can be traced to a day in 1981, when billionaire Richard Mellon
Scaife fielded a reporter's question about his financial backing of conservative groups.
"You fucking Communist cunt, get out of here," he said to Karen Rothmyer of the
Columbia Journalism Review. He went on to tell her that she was ugly and that her teeth were
"terrible." Of Ms. Rothmyer's mother, who was not present, he said, "She's ugly, too." Sensing
that it was time to wrap up the interview, Ms. Rothmyer thanked Scaife for his time. He
bade her farewell with a cheery "Don't look behind you."
That's the funny thing about tone. It's so subjective. Usually, I find it's enough to call
someone a "fucking Communist cunt," without having to gild the lily by disparaging her teeth
and issuing a veiled death threat.
But then again, the Wall Street Journal has never called me "the financial archangel
for the [conservative] movement's intellectual underpinnings." In total, Scaife's contribution
to right-wing groups (more than a hundred of them) adds up to over $200 million dollars.
That kind of money can buy a lot of tone. He's given $35 million to the far-right Heritage
Foundation, backed the Federalist Society (a secretive conservative legal organization which
feeds Bush his ultraconservative judicial nominees and political appointees), and donated to
1
Scumbag—Representative Dan Button to the Washington Post; sociopath—Craig Shirley in the Washington
Times; perpetual preener, rapist, unserious—George Will in his syndicated column; craven miscreant—
Michelle Malkin in the Washington Times.
2
Just kidding. I have never heard of Steven Seagal being referred to as a "rapist," or a "sociopath." Or
"unserious.”