When A Friend Is Maligned
When I was little, my grandparents used the word, "stock" an awful lot as in, "I don't put much stock in people that steal." I've become somewhat of a broker myself lately, as I find myself adding or subtracting stock in all kinds of subjects and people. One of the things I don't put much stock in is incivility. Something I do put a lot of stock in? Meeting people and gauging their character in person, which is why I am so utterly flabbergasted by the remarks of the Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin, who today referred to David Limbaugh and James Taranto as "Neandertahl Jerks," [her spelling].
The exchange happened on Twitter, for all the world to see, and I gather it centered on Senator Santorum in some fashion. I'll get to that in a moment, but first let me tell you a story that I haven't told on Ricochet. A little over a year ago, I had the pleasure of meeting David Limbaugh and spending some time getting to know him. My freight schedule took me right through Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and I had a few hours to spare.
As luck would have it, it was David's birthday. Nevertheless, he took time away from his family and drove out to a local truck stop (I'm limited in where I can bring a semi, so visitors typically have to come to me instead) to meet me. I found him to be a consummate gentleman. We sat there in the Huddle House, and he wanted to hear all about my story. And when the topic turned to politics, he was every bit as passionate and resolute as his brother is each day on the radio. Not belligerent, mind you, but truly engaging. And when he got wound up on the topic of Nancy Pelosi and her merry band of demolitionists in Congress, you could have heard a pin drop in Huddle House. I don't know if he was aware that we had a bit of an audience, so focused was he on the topic. And when the conversation turned to matters or morality, David Limbaugh was equally passionate and profoundly concerned with the direction in which the country is heading.
From the time we first shook hands to the time he humored me by climbing up in my truck to have a look-see at my house on wheels, my impression of him was consistent. Which is to say that I found him to be a conservative unafraid, possessing strong convictions, formidable in his ability to articulate core conservative beliefs, genuinely concerned about the country he loves, and as engaging and truly friendly a gentleman as I've ever met.
Oh yes,..and as regards Rick Santorum? Quoth Jennifer Rubin, "….His social views r unacceptable." One can almost hear Yul Brynner saying, "So let it be written. So let it be done."
Quoth me: I take up for my friends, and I don't put much stock in people that trash them. Jennifer Rubin's unfortunate characterizations say more about her than about the objects of her scorn.
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Comments:
May '10
Re: When A Friend Is Maligned
I get the sense, reading Rubin, that her conservatism is about 2 years old. Am I wrong?
May '10
Re: When A Friend Is Maligned
In fairness, Jen Rubin gets attacked A LOT by the "we must purge all RINOs!" set. It has to wear on her. And I happen to agree with her, re choice among current candidates. As an Establican.
That said, Dave Limbaugh has never been anything but courteous to me in our frequent strategic disagreements.
But that's not really our story. Our story is CPAC, wherein certain bloggers took it upon themselves to ruin the mood by chastising participants (including Tina Korbe of Hot Air!) about a perfectly acceptable cocktail dress. The Demureness Nazis. She's a Jr Miss Arkansas, for Pete's sake! Any man who tries to lengthen Tina Korbe's hemline is no friend of mine. Takes an awfully big tent, and I'll be way over on the other side with the cool kids and the open bar.
May '10
Re: When A Friend Is Maligned
Perhaps, but then I firmly maintain one can be a conservative on one's own without reading Burke. Some disagree. I mean, 2 years old? Is that old?
Dec '10
Re: When A Friend Is Maligned
I am a bit ambivalent, here. While I appreciate Jen's thoughts, I never found her to be the right parry to Kaus, in the Left Coast Right Coast sense. She seems to be more center coast.
In this case, I disagree with her calling Santorum's views unacceptable.
Rick Santorum has said to me, in these pages, that my views are kinda unacceptable.
I suggested that the primary focus for this election needed to be on limited government and that the problem with making it about social issues was that it deeded the social turf over to politics where it doesn't belong. I noted that a social issues campaign would hurt him, here in Florida, and even amongst my friends and family; an observation that was made politically and in spite of my personal opinions on the issues. Santorum's reply was that I needed to revisit the meaning of marriage.
That was both unresponsive and didactic. Although I am in complete agreement with Santorum in his position on these social issues, his political view on this subject is unacceptable, to me.
I'm not voting for a pastor; I'll take care of that, myself.
May '10
Re: When A Friend Is Maligned
The only birth control Nazis to be found are to be found in the White, where they are forcing all Americans to pay for it, in violation of their consciences and first amendment rights.
Mar '11
Re: When A Friend Is Maligned
Stuart Creque
Percival: Gosh, if Jenn really despises James Taranto that much, I guess I should be following him.
I interacted with Mr. Limbaugh on this site not too long after joining, and although that isn't as neat as coffee in Cape Girardeau, he couldn't have been nicer.
You should subscribe to Taranto's Best of the Web tickler email that links to his daily blog on the wsj.com website. Or "like" the Friends of James Taranto page on Facebook. Best of the Web is a daily dose of analysis and humor and always worth reading.
I'll do that. I need a laugh, and I'm tired of waiting for Obama's SAT scores to be released.
I'm not much on Twitter yet (can't figure out how to get permanent links to stuff) but one of David's replies was:
"FYI, I harbor no ill will 4 @JRubinblogger & don't think I acted disrespectfully toward her but do think she mischaracterized Santo's words"
Classy.
Edited on February 17, 2012 at 1:38amSep '10
Re: When A Friend Is Maligned
May '10
Re: When A Friend Is Maligned
Kennedy Smith
Perhaps, but then I firmly maintain one can be a conservative on one's own without reading Burke. Some disagree. I mean, 2 years old? Is that old? · 7 minutes ago
What I mean is that I don't think she was engaged, actually or spiritually, in the battles of the last few decades.
Dec '10
Re: When A Friend Is Maligned
All this incident points up is that Santorum will have difficulty winning the votes of college-educated career women who have publicly staked their reputations on support for Mitt Romney. But one can count those votes on one hand.
May '10
Re: When A Friend Is Maligned
katievs
The only birth control Nazis to be found are to be found in the White, where they are forcing all Americans to pay for it, in violation of their consciences and first amendment rights. · 10 minutes ago
Well quite. And she would of course agree with you. But we were more talking about red-on-red violence, I think.
Sep '10
Re: When A Friend Is Maligned
How is that fair? She gets attacked? Oh my! She writes for the Washington Post and all she ever does is bash Newt and promote Romney and pretend she likes Santorum when she really doesn't. Like Limbaugh and Taranto don't get attacked? No it's no excuse. Save your chivalry for someone who deserves it.
Dec '10
Re: When A Friend Is Maligned
Percival
... one of his replies was:
"FYI, I harbor no ill will 4 @JRubinblogger & don't think I acted disrespectfully toward her but do think she mischaracterized Santo's words"
Classy.
I took a look at the Twitter feeds. Nothing there seemed particularly Neanderthal-like.
But James Taranto takes Jen Rubin to task (a bit) in his Best of the Web today:
In the video Rubin scorns, Santorum actually makes an entirely reasonable and fairly sophisticated argument, and he says nothing cringe-worthy. He doesn't appeal to the authority of the church or "family values." He doesn't say that people who fornicate are going to hell or ought to be ashamed of themselves. Nor does he deny that it is prudent for them to use birth control.
What he says is that birth control has greatly expanded sexual freedom, and that sexual freedom has had consequences that are harmful to society and to women in particular. Again, one may disagree whether, on balance, these harms outweighed the benefits. But what is so upsetting about the idea that they might have? What in the world explains Friedersdorf's and Rubin's overwrought emotionalism?
May '10
Re: When A Friend Is Maligned
mesquito
Kennedy Smith
Perhaps, but then I firmly maintain one can be a conservative on one's own without reading Burke. Some disagree. I mean, 2 years old? Is that old? · 7 minutes ago
What I mean is that I don't think she was engaged, actually or spiritually, in the battles of the last few decades.
· 5 minutes ago
Oh, did you mean 20 years? Cause I think 2 year-old conservatism is what we could use a bit more of. We seem to have gotten stuck with a bunch of Big Government candidates. And Ron Paul. Musta taken a weird turn at Albequerque during the primary season.
But Jen's (and my) overriding goal is beating Obama. Nothing else matters. He's not passively decadent; he's actively destructive. Not entirely sure all this focus on birth control helps us, when we should be hammering him on jobs and gas prices. I mean, sure, it should be addressed, but it's been going on for weeks.
Nov '11
Re: When A Friend Is Maligned
If you are going to call Jennifer Rubin a conservative, she is probably my least favorite one due to the way she completely ridiculed and trashed Herman Cain every day for months. As I said then, commentators on twitter seem to lose IQ points.
However, I can defend her a bit. The Republicans have to win some of the female vote, especially some of the non-Catholic and less secular female vote, and not all women who are Catholic will vote for Santorum. Obama won the female vote 56%-43%. He even did better with mothers 57%-41% than women without children 56%-43%. Why? Because being a mother no longer refers to being married in this country. Unmarried women with children voted for Obama 74%-25%. There are few groups that supported him more.
I just ate at the Cape Girardeau Huddle House for the first time about a month ago, although you might have been at the Jackson one.
May '10
Re: When A Friend Is Maligned
Franco
Save your chivalry for someone who deserves it. · 5 minutes ago
I'll be the judge of that, thanks. I've also deployed my chivalry in defense of Ace of Spades, who apparently resembles an Ewok more than anything human. For this very reason.
Also, in defense of Ann Coulter, who also doesn't need it. But it takes a lot more courage for a conservative to reject the flavor of the month and catch all holy hell from former allies than it does to meekly submit to the intertube crowd.
Jul '11
Re: When A Friend Is Maligned
Franco:
And to take a page from feminist dogma, calling a man a neanderthal is kinda sexist. We never hear women called neanderthals, even though there were also women of that species(?). And there is some evidence that even though neanderthals died out if it weren't for them humans wouldn't be what they are today. · 36 minutes ago
Edited 16 minutes ago
2.5 % of our DNA.
Edited on February 17, 2012 at 1:49amDec '10
Re: When A Friend Is Maligned
Kennedy Smith
But Jen's (and my) overriding goal is beating Obama. Nothing else matters. He's not passively decadent; he's actively destructive. Not entirely sure all this focus on birth control helps us, when we should be hammering him on jobs and gas prices. I mean, sure, it should be addressed, but it's been going on for weeks. · 3 minutes ago
It may be that Jennifer Rubin's overarching goal was once the defeat of Barack Obama. However, it's clear that her goal has morphed into getting Romney the nomination at all costs, attempting to damage the other GOP candidates with specious arguments (for example, attempting to smear Santorum for not tithing 10 percent to the Catholic Church, when no such obligation to tithe exists in Catholic doctrine). Of course, if Romney isn't the nominee, she'll have ended up working against the goal of unseating Obama.
Aug '10
Re: When A Friend Is Maligned
Kennedy Smith
Franco
Save your chivalry for someone who deserves it. · 5 minutes ago
I'll be the judge of that, thanks. I've also deployed my chivalry in defense of Ace of Spades, who apparently resembles an Ewok more than anything human. For this very reason.
Also, in defense of Ann Coulter, who also doesn't need it. But it takes a lot more courage for a conservative to reject the flavor of the month and catch all holy hell from former allies than it does to meekly submit to the intertube crowd. · 3 minutes ago
Amen, brother.
Jan '11
Re: When A Friend Is Maligned
Well, she does write well...for a forth grader.
Aug '10
Re: When A Friend Is Maligned
Stuart Creque
Kennedy Smith
But Jen's (and my) overriding goal is beating Obama. Nothing else matters. He's not passively decadent; he's actively destructive. Not entirely sure all this focus on birth control helps us, when we should be hammering him on jobs and gas prices. I mean, sure, it should be addressed, but it's been going on for weeks. · 3 minutes ago
It may be that Jennifer Rubin's overarching goal was once the defeat of Barack Obama. However, it's clear that her goal has morphed into getting Romney the nomination at all costs, attempting to damage the other GOP candidates with specious arguments (for example, attempting to smear Santorum for not tithing 10 percent to the Catholic Church, when no such obligation to tithe exists in Catholic doctrine). Of course, if Romney isn't the nominee, she'll have ended up working against the goal of unseating Obama. · 10 minutes ago
C'mon, the guy's a millionaire and he can't cough up more than 3% of his money to charity? Tithing or no tithing that's pretty sad. Even Obama gave more than that.