XDA

Although he's left the New York Times, former theater critic and leftie loon Frank Rich is still writing crap. Here is a recent piece. It is titled: What Killed JFK

I know, I know. Ooh, teacher call me, cal me!

Leftie, murderous hate.

Communist Lee Harvey Oswald hated Kennedy for his staunch anti-communism (part of what we on the right like him for) and shot him in the neck and head.

I could stop there, but I won't.

The left in America has never been able to accept the stark fact that a lone Communist shot the King of Camelot and it has been trying for decades to blame anyone else. The prime method of blame shifting has been the huge cottage industry of conspiracy theorists. The other front for blame shifting has been citing the right wing hatred in Texas generally and Dallas specifically of President Kennedy. It's all bunk.

In the aftermath of Rep. Giffords (D-Ariz. 8) being shot in the head, Frank Rich and his ilk blamed right wing hate speech for the shooting. The facts that the shooter was: 1) A leftie; 2) Just plain nuts; and, 3) Certainly was not influenced by Sarah Palin's web site nor any other phony claim of incitement by the right, have only silenced them (or nearly silenced them); but to my knowledge there have been no retractions. Think of this Kennedy article as Rich doubling down on his position regarding Loughner (Money quote from the earlier piece: "Did Loughner see Palin’s own most notorious contribution to the rancorous tone — her March 2010 Web graphic targeting Congressional districts? We have no idea — nor does it matter." ) It doesn't matter?

Lee Harvey Oswald was a leftie loon, a communist. He defected to the USSR. Mr. Rich puts the cart before the horse regarding that inconvenient fact:

Immediately after the assassination and ever since, the right has tried to deflect any connection between its fevered Kennedy hatred and Oswald’s addled psyche with the fact that the assassin had briefly defected to the Soviet Union.

The left has tried to make the "fevered Kennedy hatred" by the right the reason for his assassination rather than face the truth about Oswald's politics. Since when has responding with the truth to smears become deflecting? Mr. Rich does at least cite the Warren Commission's findings about the lack of effect on Oswald of the fabled hatred here, but then spends a third of the article saying the Warren Commission was wrong about that. It is apparently hard to get out of the unofficial leftie paradigm regarding the Kennedy assassination.

Now let's cite a few vapid shots:

At least in 1963, polling showed that only 5 percent of the country—a fringe—subscribed to the radical anti-government views championed by the John Birch Society and other militants of the right. These days, that fringe, whether in the form of birthers or the tea party or the hosts of Fox & Friends, gives marching orders to a major political party.

The Republicans banished the Birchers from their ranks more than 40 years ago. We embrace the Tea Party now because its message regarding smaller, less powerful, less profligate government is the same as the Republicans. It's hardly a fringe, as I hope Mr. Rich learns again in November, 2012. The idea that the Republicans take marching orders at all is a leftie projection (recall Journolist). We certainly don't listen to the Birthers or anyone at Fox news for talking points. I'll make a deal with the left--we'll banish the Birthers when they banish the Truthers. Never happen. What is it about the wholly innocuous hosts of the barely watchable Fox morning news show that causes Mr. Rich to single them out as thought masters? Alternative reality is the best I can come up with. It is certainly alternate reality to call the majority of Americans a fringe. To Mr. Rich, it's not that the right has a different political vision, they are a militant fringe; that is, as opposed to the calm, learned, wise, moderate members of the Democratic Party I'm thinking about anyone we've seen camping out at the hippie squat called Occupy Wall Street as perhaps a more representative counter-example.

Oh and speaking of Occupy Whatever, here is Frank Rich's big finish

...the vitriol that was aimed at Kennedy in life seems as immediate as today. It’s as startling as that “You lie!” piercing the solemnity of a presidential address like a gunshot—or the actual gunshots fired at the White House last week by another wretched waif. In the end, that political backdrop is what our 44th and 35th presidents may have most in common. The tragedy of the Kennedy cult is that even as it fades, the hothouse brand of American malice that stalked its hero stalks our country still.

What?

The hothouse brand of American malice is primarily on the left (Tim McVeigh notwithstanding).
I boldly predict the 'another wretched waif' alluded to will turn out to be as crazy and as apolitical as Loughner. And to defend the substance of what Rep. Joe Wilson said (but not the method), in denying that health care legislation would provide free coverage for illegal immigrants, President Obama did indeed lie. He lies a lot. But our free speech is not in the slightest like the gunshot of a Carcano M1891/38 rifle, or of a .44-caliber handgun , or of a Iver Johnson Cadet .22 revolver or even of a Rohm RG14 .22 handgun. Nothing like them at all. The likeness exists only the the mind of Frank Rich, and his ilk.

Labels: Frank Rich; Blaming Anyone But Oswald