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| Lileks: "The Commission is calling for a reorganization!" |
| 2004-07-23 |
| EFL. The Friday "Bleat" now posts at noon, BTW. Heard an amazing exchange on the Hugh Hewitt show last night. Hugh was interviewing Peter Beinart, the editor of the New Republic. Hugh wanted to talk about Sandy Berger cramming sheaves of classified papers down his codpiece. Beinart admitted that it could be a troublesome matter, but he reserved judgment; he was willing to admit that Sandy Berger existed, but whether he stole documents was a different matter. Time would tell. "Berger's one of us. We have to protect him." Anyway, it was testy, but then it got harsh. I was listening. "Harsh" is a Lileksian understatement; Beinart had a full-bore major-league AlGore/Howard Dean meltdown. Beinart snapped that Hugh was getting his "marching orders from the RNC," which is lunatic nonsense. Even if I didn't know Hugh, I do know the talk radio business, and people don't get a daily briefing from Lord Rove, okay? It's the sort of thing said by people who do — not — understand — talk radio, and think it's orchestrated by chortling neo-cons smoking cigars with a Star of David on the band. Not to say Beinart believes that, but I'd never heard him put on the waders and head into the fever swamp before, so that was odd. "put on the waders and head into the fever swamp" -- I love that phrase! But he followed it with a hissy-fit completely irrelevant to the topic, demanding to know if there were two issues where Hugh thought Kerry was better than Bush. Hugh couldn't think of any. "Then you are a hack," Beinart spat. And he said it again, and again. "You are a hack." It was the most uncivil exchange I've ever heard on a talk radio show between a host and a regular guest. Part of Beinart's frustration was Hewitt's unwillingness to marvel at the feet of the 9/11 Commission's report. I understand. There are few words that stir the blood of a Beltway wonk like "the Commission has issued its report." That means that those in the government must now react, importantly, and those in the media must now react as well — dissect, digest, explain to the benighted groundlings what it means, and issue Important Recommendations by way of reasoned editorials aimed at the corridors of power, but more likely received by a schoolteacher in Iowa who photocopies it off and puts it on the bulletin board in the staff lounge with yellow highlight-lines through the better parts. The commission has issued its report! Mo better, the commission has issued recommendations! And the Washington press corps open their beaks, spindly necks trembling, waiting for the savory worm to be dropped from the blue-ribbon mother bird. Unless you've spent some time in DC you can't imagine the tremendous self-importance that possesses the people who feed off the government. You can see the same phenomenon at work in state capitals and county seats, but DC is the championship arena for this sort of thing. They're like people who live in the same town where NASA has a tracking station, and think that it makes them all astronauts. And so it comes to pass that a perfectly reasonable talk show host wants to talk about an out-of-power guy stuffing annotated memos in his garters, and because he doesn't want to talk about the two tablets handed down by A COMMISSION, he's a blind hack. As Beinart said, re: Berger - "That's more important than the commission is calling for a reorganization of the intelligence community?" Key words: "commission," "calling for," "reorganization," and "community." If those words don't make you swoon, don't go to DC. Three things: 1. Lileks is one of the two or three best writers in the universe (the others being Peggy Noonan and Mark Steyn, IMNTBHO. 2. I love Hugh Hewitt, and I appreciate his desire to have a diversity of opinion on the show, but I wish he'd just cut Beinart from the lineup. Beinart's a twit who parrots the DNC's latest spin-memo, and he throws a temper tantrum every time Hugh challenges him. 3. There is no limit to the lengths the Left will go to defend one of its own. Sandy Berger could be caught red-handed taking cash from Osama, and Beinart would race to his defense. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #8 BAR Any recomendations you'd like to make public? Is Tim Blair on the air downunder? |
| Posted by: Mr. Davis 2004-07-23 4:34:09 PM |
| #7 On the days when the receptionist orders Chinese carryout for the office, I listen to Hit-FM 97, Taipei. I'm also partial to FM-96 in Cork, Ireland. |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-07-23 4:17:30 PM |
| #6 Hewitt's homepage links to three of his affiliates who provide streaming audio. I listen to him on KTKZ, Sacramento, from my desk in Akron, Ohio. Don'tcha just love that? With the 'Net, stuff that was out of reach before is no longer. Oh, and I have a habit at work of listening daily to streamed broadcasts from a few select Australian radio stations. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-07-23 4:14:26 PM |
| #5 Mike- I had a desk in Akron once - on Exchange, just west of Akron General, with a thoroughly depressing view of Glendale Cemetery. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2004-07-23 2:36:29 PM |
| #4 Lucky: Hewitt's homepage links to three of his affiliates who provide streaming audio. I listen to him on KTKZ, Sacramento, from my desk in Akron, Ohio. |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-07-23 2:23:38 PM |
| #3 There is also that Ralph Peters guy, who I rarely get to read but whenever Tipper post his stuff I'm floored. RBU! Wish we could get Hugh's show in the Puget Sound region, or do we and I don't know? |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-07-23 2:19:45 PM |
| #2 and he (Beinart) throws a temper tantrum every time Hugh challenges him. I must digress, Mike. I think Peter's temper tantrums are an excellent illustration of the left's inherent weaknesses when it comes to defending their positions with those quaint notions of logic and reason; all the more reason to keep him in the lineup. That's the premise behind your third comment, methinks. |
| Posted by: Raj 2004-07-23 2:08:52 PM |
| #1 I would add to Lileks, Noonan and Steyn, the name of Victor Davis Hanson. |
| Posted by: Brett_the_Quarkian 2004-07-23 2:08:15 PM |