An Ideologue for Hire Gets New Alliance
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman announced Tuesday that he had hired a new spokesman, which is not in itself that noteworthy, except that the said spokesman, Marshall Wittmann, is one of the great career vagabonds, ideological contortionists and political pontificators ever to inflict himself on a city full of them.
To say that Mr. Wittmann defies classification is like saying Paris Hilton defies modesty. But in his peripatetic soul, he is a Washington Original, a man without a political country going to work for a senator without a political party.
Mr. Lieberman, a longtime Democrat of Connecticut who was re-elected as an independent and calls himself an “Independent Democrat,†has not ruled out becoming a Republican.
Mr. Wittmann, meanwhile, is a Trotskyite turned Zionist turned Reaganite turned bipartisan irritant turned pretty much everything in between  including chief lobbyist for the Christian Coalition, the only Jew who has ever held that position.
. . . .
Liberated from the on-message shackles of a Senate office, Mr. Wittmann soared into the blogosphere. He immersed himself in his popular online diary, Bull Moose, named for the party of his political hero, Teddy Roosevelt. It became a virtual megaphone through which Mr. Wittmann could ridicule both the Bush administration and the liberal bloggers, or “netroots†(or, in Mr. Wittmann’s words, the “nutrootsâ€Â) that attacked Mr. Lieberman relentlessly during his re-election campaign.
BECAUSE OF THE HYPOCRISY! I mean, the guy’s not even a journalist.
Aha! I think I see Mr. Wittman’s ‘sin’…
This is an ideologue?
This is a denunciation?
Looks like a pretty positive piece to me…
Yeah, nothing denunciatory about that.
Like those guys down by the Navy docks with pink wigs, goldfish heels and 44DDsâ€â€contrarians. Just like the good Lord made ‘em.
In that case, Wittman can probably sue.
I’ve never heard the term “ideologue” used admiringly. It seems to be the antithesis of “ideological contortionist” which Wittmann is also characterized as.
But we’re talking Jooooos here, and not the bitchin Soros kind of Jooos either. Anything is possible.
Oh! The irony! At this rate the NYT will again be able to print non-fiction.
I’m not seeing it.
I see a guy who makes a living dealing with the press doing a voluntary interview with Mark Leibovich that makes him look pretty good…
Maybe someone with the finely tuned, Princess and the Pea sensitivity to press bias could point out how this article makes Wittmann look bad?
monkyboy is one of the great blogosphere vagabonds, ideological contortionists and political pontificators ever to inflict himself on a blog full of them.
monkyboy, maybe you could just consider this more evidence that you are, in fact, incredibly stupid?
I mean, there’s stupid, and then there’s monkyboy stupid.
Maybe if you guys could actually defend your positions with reality-based arguments instead of just calling anyone who disagrees with you stupid…
Y’all might have won the election.
Just sayin’
Indeed.
I’d bet the NYT wasn’t this sneering when David Gergen joined the Clinton Whitehouse…
Stop pretending you have normal inteligence. It’s annoying to those of us who are smarter than you, which is to say, everyone.
The archives are your friend. Nobody owes you the 348,926th repetition of the same points we’ve made to the 348,925 other idiots who have come this way before you.
Sounds like my type of guy. If the democratic party was full of Lieberman’s and Miller’s, I might just have to switch sides.
Oh yeah I forgot: I hate minorites. Hate em! And women too!
Being attacked by this kind of article is I think a positive thing for the victim (sneeree?).
Suppose Dan were to be praised in the Guardian or the Independent, which I suppose is a close as we get to the New York Times. The man would have to hang his head in shame and move to Vermont.
Conversely, if the late lamented Scorr Burgess were to be castigated by P Toynbee, or Madeleine ‘Snake-eyes’ Bunting, you would immediately know that you were in the presence of greatness.
If anything here suggests that monkyboy is not the human equivalent of tinea cruris, I apologise.
Like John Kerry stating our soldiers don’t study.
BECAUSE OF THE REALITY!â„¢
Besides, the observation that “monkyboy is stupid” is about as reality based as it’s possible to get.
Now, the Times had a choice to put this almost anywhere in the paper. But where did they go with it? Is it a NEWS article? No, it is not. Is it an EDITORIAL? No, it is not. Is it a snarky slap at Lieberman, the SELLOUT (COVEN…..WITCHCRAFT)? Why yes, yes it is. And so it would appear that it should be in the GOSSIP section. With the rest of the frivolous tripe. But wait, I forgot, they fired that guy and shut down the Gossip section. Never mind, it obviously must must must be on the front page. Because of the snark. And the sneer. And the bile. Pauline Kael, anyone? Everyone?
DISSENT WILL NOT BE TOLERATED
WE WILL ALL PURCHASE FROM A MARKET PLACE OF THE SAME LEFT-WING IDEAS*
*”Ideas” used loosely in this context.