Open-mindedness vs. brain loss

The poet Robert Frost is often quoted as having said that a liberal is someone who is so open-minded that he won't take his own side in an argument.

Fortunately, most people don't usually accuse us Jacksonian liberals of that particular failing.

We're more likely to go by the motto:  Being open-minded doesn't mean that you have to let your brain fall out onto the ground.

As I mentioned in the previous post on the Bush's Texas Air Guard documents and the comments, something more than normal curiosity was bugging me about the claims and counter-claims on the disputed documents.

I use "comma-dancing" to describe the hair-splitting over words of which conservatives often seem so fond.  E.g., "No, I said 'some people say that all Democrats but Zell Miller are subhuman degenerates'; I didn't say that *I* said that.  (Ain't sayin' I didn't say it either.)"

It's always kind of a mind-bend to talk to someone like that.  But in the Bush TANG (Texas Air National Guard) documents story, it did came down to a more literal kind of comma-dancing.  Or, as our conservative friend might say, "No, it wasn't dancing on *commas*!  It was dancing on 'th'-superscripts and 'i's and 'm's."

By the way, I stole that "comma-dancing" phrase from someone and I've assimilated it so much that I've forgotten where it came from.  I like to give credit for valuable new words when I can, like to David Neiwert for "Foxist."

So, my inner "Andy Jackson detector of Federalist/Republican/economic-royalist/Oxycontin/Foxist excrement" was right to be acting up.  This is what Geraldine Sealey posted today at the "War Room '04" blog at Salon.com:

William Flynn, a forensic expert, has been cited in several news accounts claiming the Killian memos were almost certainly faked. A few people have sent us this link showing that Flynn is also famous for alleging that the KGB forged John "Ivan the Terrible" Demjanjuk's death-camp ID in order to "frame" him.

As for one of the other "debunkers" cited in the AP account among other stories,Sandra Ramsey Lines, it turns out that she has strong GOP ties and is a member of the WISH List, a group that raises money for Republican women running for the House and Senate.

While I'm at it, I might as well link to Eric Boehlert's piece: Swift Boat flacks attack CBS  Salon.com 09/10/04.

[T]here is clear evidence confirming that the same conservative operatives who have been busily promoting the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth smears of Kerry are now engaged in pushing the story that CBS's "60 Minutes Weeknight Edition" aired forged documents in its Wednesday night report on Bush and the National Guard.

Creative Response Concepts, the Arlington, Va., Republican public relations firm run by former Pat Buchanan communications director Greg Mueller, with help from former Pat Robertson communications director Mike Russell, sent out a media advisory Thursday to hawk a right-wing news dispatch: "60 Minutes' Documents on Bush Might Be Fake." Creative Response Concepts has played a crucial role in hyping the inaccurate, secondhand Swift Boat allegations, with Russell serving as the group's official spokesman. A company spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Throughout the Swift Boat smear campaign, the veterans involved asserted they had no political agenda and were unaffiliated with any political party. But Creative Response Concepts, which was obviously paid some undisclosed amount for its Swift Boat work, has many links to the Republican Party and the conservative movement.

If any of these people do have valid objections, the research is well underway which should clarify that, and soon.

But if the Swift Boat Liars and similar Republican front groups can just make up stuff to make people doubt Kerry's (heroic) documented record, it's not really much different for them to try to blow smoke around Bush's (not-so-heroic) documented record.  People who are willing to just make stuff up often have a short-term advantage.  Sometimes the advantage is very short-term.