William Safire Is A Thief And A Liar

Safire in the NYTimes today:

Senator John Kerry, campaigning last week in Chicago, let loose with his opinion of Republicans opposing him as "the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen."
...
Was it wise for a candidate for president to characterize Republicans — tens of millions of American voters, including even veterans — as thieves and liars?

No duh, it's not wise to charactierize tens of millions of Republican voters as thieves and liars, which is why Kerry didn't do that. And Safire knows it, as you can tell by his first graf: Kerry's comment was about the "Republicans opposing him". In other words, BushCo.

The full quote, told to a supporter, was about carrying the fight to the GOP this year:

Let me tell you, we've just begun to fight. We're going to keep pounding. These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen.

The supporter agreed, saying, "It's scary."

It certainly is scary, and it certainly is nice to see that Kerry won't make the same mistakes Dukakis and Gore did. He's not going to allow the GOP to frame this debate and stick negative labels on him: he's fighting back. I think that has unsettled BushCo and apologists like Safire, so they are printing more and more fallacious tripe in their columns, working themselves into a fit of faux pique about an imagined insult against millions of Republicans. Proof positive that the wheels are flying off the winger machine.

The next 8 months are going to be nasty, but I suspect also quite entertaining.

ntodd

PS - Did I mention that William Safire is a thief and a liar? Yeah, he's a thief and a liar.  ¶ 10:39 AM