There’s a saying in Washington DC that they think is very clever but it’s mostly just annoying. Anytime someone says something outrageous that also happens to contradict their party’s official line, they are applauded for being honest. Today’s example comes from Aaron Blake and Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post:
In Washington, there’s an old cliche: A gaffe is when a politician is accidentally honest.
That’s what happened to Newark (N.J.) Mayor Cory Booker during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. Booker, who is widely regarded as a fast riser in Democratic politics, veered badly off message when he defended Bain Capital — the longtime employer of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney — and described the negative tone of the campaign as “nauseating”.
Maybe Cory Booker was being honest about his personal opinion, but what he said was ridiculous. It was a gaffe because it was stupid, not because it was truthful. I don’t think it’s surprising that an ambitious New Jersey politician would defend private equity firms. But to equate the attacks on Romney’s Bain Capital with the attacks on Rev. Jeremiah Wright was moronic on all levels.
What really happened is that Booker made an appearance on Meet the Press where his job was to be a surrogate for the president and his reelection campaign. And he forgot that and decided to use his appearance to ask for money for himself from Wall Street. That’s not being courageous or honest or smart or loyal or anything praiseworthy.
Yet, it’s portrayed in Washington as something completely different. Cory Booker let the “truth” slip out. If by ‘truth; you mean that Jersey politicians are as beholden to Wall Street as West virginia pols are beholden to coal, then he let the truth slip out. But if you mean that the ‘truth’ is that attacks on Romney’s record at Bain Capital are meritless smears that are no different in kind from attacks on the black church, then you’re suffering from Beltway Disease.
