Albert Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. And so goes the White House with these attacks on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce drummed up by the “professional left’s” blogosphere that it is using foreign donations to finance political advertising.
Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer however, had another take on what these attacks are. He said they’re not insane, but desperation of one of the highest degrees. During the Oct. 11 broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Special Report with Bret Baier,” Krauthammer attacked the Obama administration, calling this campaign against the Chamber “reptilian desperation.”
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“Well, there's desperation and then there's reptilian desperation – and this is the reptilian variety,” Krauthammer said. “This thing just oozes of slime and innuendo, and it's McCarthyite. You make an accusation that the other side is using foreign funds. You don't have a shred of evidence and you answer, like Axelrod, 'Well, what's your evidence?' which is what McCarthy did. You'd raise suspicions about someone and the objective is not to actually make a case. It's to raise suspicions and leave them hanging out there."
Krauthammer explained how the Chamber’s overseas affiliates work and said it was a very low percentage of its operating budget. He also explained it was no different than what left-wing groups do but are rarely criticized for.
“Here are the facts,” he said. “The Chamber of Commerce has 110 overseas affiliates, which give annual dues and it is peanuts. It is one-half of one-tenth of 1 percent of its budget. Also, as the New York Times has written, not me and not other right-wing troglodytes – they’ve written that this practice of getting dues from overseas associations is not illegal, it’s not improper and it’s not unusual. We heard earlier in the show the Sierra Club and the AFL-CIO also have overseas affiliates, which give dues and they engage in political activity. The money from the overseas affiliates is segregated and not used in politics.”
He also noted the irony in Obama’s accusations, coming off his “citizen of the world” tour back during the 2008 presidential campaign.
“The accusation here is the money is being used again without a shred of evidence. And the irony here is that Obama is the man that ran on hope and change and this is a pure appeal to xenophobic fear,” he continued. “Secondly, here’s a man who said we have to be one with the world. He stands up in Berlin two years ago in a rally of swooning, cheering Germans and what does he say? ‘I’m a citizen of the world and now his use of the world is as a weapon. The foreigners – the sinister foreigners are influencing our elections in a secret way, again without s shred of evidence.”
Jonah Goldberg, editor-at-large at National Review, agreed with Krauthammer’s view and pointed out that even the left-of-center New York Times failed to find fault with the Chamber’s practices, even though the White House is continuing to push the meme there is the possibility of foreign money influencing American elections.
“I think that this is a disastrous move,” Goldberg said. “I agree entirely with Charles it has a McCarthyite stink to it. And also, I think when The New York Times raps you on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper, it says stop doing something, then you keep doing it – it tends to make that part of the establishment angry.”
Goldberg’s observation – with President Barack Obama and his operatives pushing the meme, it comes off like the White House is hung up on the left-wing blogosphere.
“And I think what you’re going to see, I mean it is amazing how this president has managed to alienate not just his enemies, but friends,” Goldberg said. “This is such a sad farcical display that we’re seeing from these guys where they know it’s not true. It really gives the impression that the President of the United States is sitting around reading obscure left-wing blogs.”
