Frank Rich in October of 2009: “The G.O.P. Stalinists Invade Upstate New York.”
Frank Rich, today:
Rove and his book are yesterday. Keep America Safe is on the march. Liz Cheney’s crackpot hit squad achieved instant notoriety with its viral video demanding the names of Obama Justice Department officials who had served as pro bono defense lawyers for Guantánamo Bay detainees. The video branded these government lawyers as “the Al Qaeda Seven” and juxtaposed their supposed un-American activities with a photo of Osama bin Laden. As if to underline the McCarthyism implicit in this smear campaign, the Cheney ally Marc Thiessen (one of the two former Bush speechwriters now serving as Washington Post columnists) started spreading these charges on television with a giggly, repressed hysteria uncannily reminiscent of the snide Joe McCarthy henchman Roy Cohn.
So Republicans to Frank Rich, and presumably most of the rest of the cast of characters at the Gray Lady are both Stalinists and anti-communist McCarthyites. I knew the GOP prided itself on being a big tent, but I had no idea just how inclusive they could be!
And on the flip side, never let it be said that the melodramatic former drama critic doesn’t cover all the bases himself.
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