Rosa's Retort: LA Times' Brooks Replies To My NB Column

When the Pope recently accused Muslim extremists of using violence to advance their ends, they responded . . . with violence. Not to compare myself to the Pontiff, but I recently accused a liberal columnist of being consumed with Bush-hatred, and she has now responded . . . by cataloguing the many things she hates about Bush.

Last week I posted an item, Bush-hating Rosa Brooks No Dissent, critiquing a column by Rosa Brooks of the LA Times. Brooks has fired back with another column today, I'm No Bush Hater, ostensibly seeking to refute my criticism.

Though Brooks doesn't deign to mention me by name or link to my column so her readers could judge for themselves, it's clear whom she has in mind when writing that "one right-wing blogger . . . not only mischaracterized what I said but referred to me as 'Bush hating,' 'blinded' by 'virulent' anger, full of 'unreconstructed rage' and typical of the 'Bush-hatred of the American left.' All the quoted phrases can be found in my column.

OK, let's have a look at Brooks' defense to the Bush-hatred charge. On the one hand she claims: "I don't hate George Bush," but then promptly launches into this litany:

• I sure hate what he's done to my country.
• I hate the fact that Bush and the radicals in his administration play politics with patriotism.
• I hate the fact that after promising to unite us, this president has done his best to divide us.
• I hate the fact that Bush's reckless foreign policies have led many of our closest allies to regard this nation with contempt and fear.
• I hate the fact that to Bush, the phrase "the buck stops here" is apparently as quaint as the Geneva Convention.

I see. Brooks doesn't hate George Bush. She just hates everything that in her view he does and stands for. Can you say "distinction without a difference"?

After her - hopefully cathartic - venting Brooks actually pleads that "we need to pull together." She might be angry, but at least no one can accuse Rosa of lacking a sense of humor.

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Finkelstein lives in the liberal haven of Ithaca, NY. View webcasts of Mark's award-winning TV show 'Right Angle' here. Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net