Boxer’s Defenders Use “Anti-Semitism” Smear … Shoot Selves In Foot
Any time a post leads with “the Republican attack machine can’t touch the moral center, the logical incision, or the factual accuracy of California Senator Barbara Boxer’s speeches,” you have to question whether you’re dealing with satire or just delusion.
But when honest conservatives get smeared as anti-semitic, it’s no longer funny.
In a post titled “Republicans Driven to Anti-Semitism in Criticism of Barbara Boxer,” Boxer2008.com tars PoliPundit and a site we’re unfamiliar with, TheRealityCheck, with using “the tools of bigotry” because the word “yenta” appears on their sites.
Boxer2008.com’s post illustrates something, but it isn’t anti-semitism on the part of those two bloggers. The word is used at PoliPundit in a comment. Anyone who’s been blogging for more than a month understands the distinction between posts and comments. In the pursuit of the evil Republicans, Boxer2008.com fails to make this clear.
They also fail to note that the comment is nine months old. This from a site whose defenders think Independent Sources is late to the game because we failed to notice their existence until a week ago (see comment here).
Their other example is just as weak. They also cleverly edit the post in TheRealityCheck to their advantage. Boxer 2008 says
Witness, for instance, the shameless outfit TheRealityCheck as it brays, “I am truly embarrassed by the likes of Ted Kennedy and Barbara Boxer, the ‘yenta’ from Brooklyn, who along with her friends, have ruined a once great social force.”
But the original post has a different flavor:
It is no longer the Democratic party I once knew and loved. As a New York Jew aka “born Democrat” and now “former Democrat,” I am truly embarrassed by the likes of Ted Kennedy and Barbara Boxer, the “yenta” from Brooklyn, who along with her friends, have ruined a once great social force.
Not the same, is it?
Boxer2008.com’s “factual accuracy” ranks right up their with their candidate’s.
—
From dictionary.com: yenta: “A person, especially a woman, who is meddlesome or gossipy.” Any disagreement on meddlesome?
Technorati Tags: Barbara Boxer, boxer2008.com
Similar Independent Sources posts:
- Pro-Boxer Site Gets One Thing Right: "Republicans have gotten so used to milquetoast Democrats in the Senate, like former senator Tom Daschle, that they seem to feel outraged at the mere ...
- Mediocre Approval Ratings For A Mediocre Senator?: Boxer Watch points out that Barbara Boxer isn't doing so well in the approval rating department: In a survey of constituents' approval of their Sen ...
- Welcome, New Independent Sources Target!: From the new site Boxer2008.com ... We are tired of the lies, the secrecy, and the dishonor that the Republicans have brought to America. We want a s ...
- Will Anyone Give Barbara Boxer’s Book A Good Review?: The National Review's John J. Miller has a summary of the worst parts of Barbara Boxer's novel, "A Time To Run." We've covered some before (see the en ...
- California’s “Resident Airhead”: According to the Victorville Daily Press, it's Senator Barbara Boxer. Technorati Tags: Barbara Boxer ...
October 14th, 2005 at 4:22 am
Yiddish word man, so why don’t you point that out? I read at Boxer2008.com that they checked it, and looked the word up on Dictionary.com - where it shows that the word is specifically tied to a Jewish woman. The first person is not at all indicated as Jewish, so I don’t see how your defense applies there.
Seems a fair accusation to me. Why is there an obsession with some among us Republicans about Jews? As a lifelong Republican, it’s always bothered me to sit among fellow Republicans at a bar, and then someone starts in with the talk about how Jews are in a secret conspiracy to rule the media, or the banks, or something like that.
If we Republicans want to be taken seriously, we need to lay off the attacks on people like Boxer just because she’s Jewish. An ideological, issues-based approach would be much more honorable.
October 14th, 2005 at 11:03 am
The entire comment on Polipundit is ugly, and the author probably IS anti-semitic, but that’s not Polipundit’s fault, and s/he shouldn’t be lumped in with whatever unsavory views some of his / her readership has.
Every bloggger faces the question of what to do about comments: allow them, without editing? Delete the unpleasant ones? Have none? Allowing open comments can bring in some of the nuts, but if you believe in the marketplace of ideas, you have to let it happen. Polipundit shouldn’t be called anti-semitic because he made that choice.
I must not go to the same bars you do, for I have never had or heard one of those conspiracy theories in the first person. But I hear echoes of them from friends on the left, who are convinced that we are one step away from a Christian theocracy in this country. Both are extreme, disconnected-from-reality views.
I couldn’t agree more with your conclusion, that we on the right need to focus on issues, but I think that’s what PoliPundit (not the comment author) and the poster in TheRealityCheck were doing.