> Message: 4
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 12:16:55 -0600
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] McGruder at the Nation bash
> From: Shane Taylor <s-t-t at juno.com>
> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>
> > Washington Post - December 17, 2003
> >
> > NAMES & FACES
> >
> > Sketch Comedy
> >
> > Left-wingers tend to like cartoonist Aaron McGruder for his
> > comic-strip assaults on the Bush administration in "The
> > Boondocks." But at a dinner Sunday night marking the
> > 138th anniversary of the Nation magazine, McGruder
> > earned boos for saying liberals need to be meaner if they
> > want to win back the White House.
>
> What the hell? McGruder is right on this one. I like what Juan Cole
> said: the Dems should run ads with the pic of Rummy and Saddam shaking
> hands.
California Peace Action has been doing that:
http://www.californiapeaceaction.org/campaigns/ad/rumsadad.htm
They have a few Democratic endorsers, but I have a hard time imagining any of the high-level Democrats running such ads. I don't think it's just because they're pathetic wimps. I suspect that there's a real problem with such an approach - the Democrats' hands are very bloody as well. Can't you just hear it? "How can you criticize us for supporting Hussein? It's no different than Clinton supporting Suharto", etc. etc. And of course they would have a point. Actually Hillary did briefly mention past Republican support of Hussein in her awful speech justifying her vote but since then has let the matter completely drop, as far as I know. (btw, if any haven't heard it, it's really worth listening to Alan Nairn's questioning of Clinton at the East Timor independence celebration, as broadcast on Democracy Now!. It's a good reminder of just what a prick he is.)
Of course then there's the "We had to support Stalin for a while as well" line, and so it follows that support of anything can be justified, and so the war on fascism becomes a justification for supporting fascists around the world.