Okay, putting aside the rather pathetic fact that I'm watching Book TV on a Saturday night ... Peter Beinart is dismantling Fred "Beetle" Barnes and his ridiculous new book piece by pathetic, Bush-bum-powdering piece. Beinart challenged Barnes on his exceptionally positive book, his failure to interview a single Bush critic from among former Bush staffers or members of the administration, let alone outside the "family," and Barnes' apparent forgetfulness when it comes to the rudiments of journalism. (Beinart: "would you counsel a young journalism student to only interview sources who confirmed the thesis of an article? And wouldn't your arguments be stronger if you tested them against opposing points of view...?" Barnes response: "I ... I ... uh ... I did talk to John Dilulio ... he's a friend of mine ... I know his criticisms of Bush and didn't find them to be particularly weighty...")
Apparently, Barnes had a "thesis" ("it's a short book ... I had a short deadline ... uh ... I didn't think I needed to interview Howard Dean to find out what I think about George Bush ... you little bastard...") and he wasn't out to test it. At all. He is "generally favorably disposed toward the posture of the Bush administration," so he saw no need to write about anything not favorably disposed toward the following adjectives: strong, bold, manly, "hunky ..."
Beinart (and this is while actually giggling, by the way) stunned the poor bastard on his contention in the book that Bush has significantly strengthened America's position in the world, with not a mention of Iran and North Korea's growing nuclear potential and assorted other international disasters that have unfolded under Dubya's watch. (From Barnes, more "uh ... uh ... I didn't think I needed to interview Al Gore about that either ..."
More Barnes gems:
He originally wanted to call the book "The insurgent president" ... unfortunately the Iraq totally freaking sucking as a war messed that up...
His biggest surprises in doing his "research" for the book: Bush really, really IS in charge! And "he's a reader" -- reads five books for every one Condi Rice does (and two of five those books aren't even about fart jokes! In your face, Bush haters!)
The inspiration for the book was a 1,000 word article Barnes wrote for the Wall Street Journal editorial page. Luckily all he needed to add was another 400 words and little hearts over all the i's and it was straight to press!!!
Note to Barnes: Stick to the Fox News circuit. You can be damned sure Hannity will support your book. In fact, your only problem out of him might be an elbow in the gut as he dives over you to grab the presidential knee pads...
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%>
Tell a friend
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'send a specific page or send a site url
dim url
'url = Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
url = "http://www.aspbasics.net"
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sendmail.Body = "Site recommendation from a friend!" & _
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%>
"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
