Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The myth of Rahm "f---ing r----ded" Emanuel as tough guy rather than profane lapdog.

http://www,fdlaction.firedoglake.com--for/ Jane Hamsher's take on Rahm Emanuel, the Special Olympics and his recent upbraiding for using the word "retarded."
http://www.taibbi.rssoundingboard.com/ for Matt Taibbi's opinion--with a few choice remarks aimed at those who choose to serve as word police.

By now, a lot of us common folks and media spoonfeeders (raise your hands, John Heilemann of NEW YORK magazine and Mike Madden of Salon.com) seem to have swallowed the grape-flavored myth of Clintonite Rahm Emanuel as the Obama Administration official who Gets Things Done with a "realistic" (read "despises liberals and liberalism") worldview.

Given the mixed-bag, incremental-at-best record of Obama: Year One, it's time for the Emanuel myth to be laid to rest.

It may be one thing for Emanuel to yell at people to "obey" administration dictates if they work in the White House or happen to be Senators/Congressmen. But to demand that liberal advocacy groups (i.e. MoveOn) fall into unquestioning lockstep is a bit much.

Rahm Emanuel is a go-along, get-along lapdog for the status quo of Wall Street (which wants to continue to do business the way they're accustomed to regardless of the Great Recession) and the (let's be PC here) plus-sized cats of both the Democratic and Republican parties.

Obviously, despite the opportunistic efforts of Sarah Palin (who merely objected to the word "retarded"), Emanuel won't be leaving the White House--probably because he's convinced too many people of his Importance to Obama.

But, to quote Gertrude Stein out of context, there truly isn't much there there where Rahm Emanuel is concerned.

And it's time for the mainstream media and the people who take it seriously to absorb that fact.

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