In a Wednesday morning tweet, Matthew Dowd of ABC News, the network's chief political analyst, demonstrated once again that he can be counted on to cling to views diametrically opposed to common sense, as he for all practical purposes resurrected the dishonest defense Democrats used to save Bill Clinton's presidency in the late-1990s.
Dowd's version, tweeted today in reaction to sex harassment and assault scandals which are predominantly affecting DC Democrats, predominantly liberal establishment media icons, and predominantly liberal Hollywood celebrities, is that "there is a difference between those who are flawed who work for the common good and those who are flawed who could care less about the common good."
Apparently, the former, obviously liberals and Democrats, are generally virtuous saints who deserve a pass, while the latter who are on the center-right need to be hounded from public office and public influence.
Dowd has a penchant for blindness which is so pervasive it leads one to wonder what remaining value he possibly has to ABC — except as a perceived Republican and token fake conservative. That schtick is wearing thin; Dowd left the GOP 10 years ago, and his current policy stances are almost invariably liberal.
In May, in response to an upcoming appearance about Christian persecution by Franklin Graham on Fox News, Dowd tweeted that the persecution of Muslims in America and around the globe is worse than the degree of worldwide persecution of Christians:
In 2013, the Vatican estimated that "100,000 Christians are killed annually because of their faith." The death toll in 2016, according to an estimate published by the the Center for Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (also report here), was 90,000.
The number of Muslims murdered in America for religious reasons since the September 11, 2001 attacks is under 100. The worldwide number of non-Muslim attacks on Muslims benchmarked since that date, based on a Wikipedia entry which is meant to be a comprehensive worldwide review, is at most several thousand, and likely quite a bit less.
Meanwhile, former journalist Yair Lapid, who is the head of the Yesh Atid Party in Israel, said in 2016 that “Twelve million Muslims have been killed by other Muslims since 1948." That's about 174,000 per year, but that almost definitely isn't the "persecution" to which Dowd was referring. But on the off-chance that he was, what in the world does he think anyone in American can hope to do about it, and particularly why was he criticizing Christian minister Franklin Graham over this issue?
Dowd's Wednesday morning tweet over the sex harassment and assault scandals is meant to take us back to the "standards" of 1998 and 1999, which weren't "standards" at all (HT Twitchy):
This was the defense the left used to protect Bill Clinton throughout the 1990s, but especially during the Monica Lewinsky impeachment saga in 1998 and 1999.
Perjury and obstruction of justice didn't matter, because the economy was good, thanks primarily to the Newt Gingrich-led Congress getting a bit of control over spending, enacting welfare reform, and passing a capital-gains tax cut — but Dems have never given credit where deserved for the strong late-1990s economy.
Oh, and Clinton held all the "correct" positions on social issues, especially abortion and (supposedly) women's rights in general. Keeping Bill Clinton in office was so important that feminist organizations like the National Organization of Women sold their credibility down the river, and decided that a serial harasser, assaulter, and likely rapist couldn't be removed from office — because, using the words in Dowd's Wednesday tweet, "those who are flawed who could care less about the common good" would win a political victory. The left succeeded in its "move on" defense." The damage to the rule of law was incalculable, and we are all much worse off because of that result.
The best Twitter response: "The best speech on having no principles I have ever seen."
Dowd is Exhibit A for elitists who think they're better or smarter than the rest of us who obviously aren't.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
