I guess today is Irony Day. I’d like to praise the Mustache of Understanding for using his column today to rail against the eliminationist rhetoric of the far right. But there’s a problem:
Sometimes I wonder whether George H.W. Bush, president “41,” will be remembered as our last “legitimate” president. The right impeached Bill Clinton and hounded him from Day 1 with the bogus Whitewater “scandal.” George W. Bush was elected under a cloud because of the Florida voting mess, and his critics on the left never let him forget it.
And Mr. Obama is now having his legitimacy attacked by a concerted campaign from the right fringe. They are using everything from smears that he is a closet “socialist” to calling him a “liar” in the middle of a joint session of Congress to fabricating doubts about his birth in America and whether he is even a citizen. And these attacks are not just coming from the fringe. Now they come from Lou Dobbs on CNN and from members of the House of Representatives.
Did you find the problem? It’s right there in the first paragraph. Tommy Friedman said that ‘the right hounded Clinton from Day 1 with the bogus Whitewater scandal.’ But the main venue for hounding Clinton about Whitewater was Friedman’s own New York Times. It was a relentless investigation that went on for year after year of the Clinton administration. You can read about it for $2.95.
