Comments on: Doris Kearns Goodwin on Torture: “Leave Establishment Washington ALOOOONE!!!”

By: MarkH

MarkH — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 01:39:56 +0000

The issue is not how best to take vengance but how best to maintain our system of laws.

The issue is not how best to burn the straw man, but how to paint a pretty picture. Bah.

If we don’t uphold laws which relate to the things Bush & Co have done, then we have no Democracy.

If Bernie Madoff can walk on the streets of New York after stealing $50B, then he is free to write checks and hand out diamonds to his relatives and those who have been robbed are robbed again.

If we don’t punish wrong-doers, then they will be free to do it again.

Are we crazy enough to allow monsters to walk free among us to hurt us again?

At least we know Bush won’t be in government again, but if he’s not at least charged & tried for his actions, then what’s to stop others like him from doing the same? Jebbie seems to want to and Babs wants somebody in her family to make her proud. How many of this crew were there from the Nixon or Ford or Reagan years and kept coming back?

Question is: are ya gonna vote for Bush again? No, wait, that’s the punch line of a joke. No, the question is, do you want the liars, thieves & killers to come back and do it to you and your kin again? Well, do ya punk?

Justice: giving someone what they deserve.

By: shell

shell — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 01:07:30 +0000

I am so F-ing sick of this “Move on” approach! I have seen several bloggers say that if they do that, why not use the same technique with the average robber, child molester, murderer? In that case, prosecuting them will not bring your car, child’s innocence, life back. So why bother?

Why don’t all Americans see this double standard?????

By: alank

alank — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:09:18 +0000

Michael Beschloss is also crock,

The glass ceiling of punditry
AHB wonders: where are the ladies? There are not too many cracks in the glass ceiling of historical punditry. Doris Kearns Goodwin is the only prominent woman historian who regularly appears as a commentator on national television. The only other historical pundit who shares the gender of the goddesss Clio to break through is New Hampshire’s Ellen Fitzpatrick, who joined PBS’s rather tired squadron of talking heads in the 2004 election and continues to appear on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer. Fitzpatrick’s matter-of-fact style is a rather refreshing contrast to the inarticulate bloviation of Mark Shields and the blow-dried history as trivial pursuit practiced by Michael Beschloss.

By: old46

old46 — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:05:47 +0000

cuz evidently she’s a presidential historian now on top of her numerous other expertises.

and psst, Lefty, a word to the wise: run for your life, before the groupies devour you.

By: marshen

marshen — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:46:24 +0000

Don’t these historian/ authors need to maintain a certain sense of neutrality on political issues so they can appear to be non-partisan, making it easier to access people from both the Bush and Obama administrations for future book writing purposes?

By: leftdcin72

leftdcin72 — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:41:01 +0000

Who’s worse Richard Goodwin or Doris Kearns? You had to live in the sixties and seventies and be around Harvard and the wanabes and the folks who used education instituion branding. Goodwin and Kearns have never done a public act which is not terribly self serving and mediocre.

By: SusanH

SusanH — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:10:23 +0000

Excellent imagery!

By: RonThompson

RonThompson — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:10:08 +0000

Kearns is only one example of the kind of “historian” the corporate media foists on its viewers. Michael Bescloss is another. What they have in common is a view of American history which is narrowly focused on the Presidency. You never hear TV “historians” discussing the role that unions, popular pressure or Congress played in important national moments–it’s always all about the President.
Kearns made her reputation as an historian by spending hundreds of hours with LBJ after the Presidency and writing “Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream”, which is a decent introduction to LBJ for those who know little about him. Maybe some of them will go on to read Robert Caro’s masterful multi-volume biography.
Kearns then went on to write about Franklin Roosevelt and, now, Lincoln. She does a decent job of writing light history, and there’s a place for that as an entry level to reading and thinking about history.
That does not mean that she is a perceptive student of current events, or has anything worthwhile to say about politics on television. In those deficiencies, she is joined by about 90% of the people who regularly opine in the corporate media.

By: Prairie Sunshine

Prairie Sunshine — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:09:22 +0000

*bows*

Thank you for this, Jane! Too often false framing becomes conventional wisdom because The Villagers decide it’s “out there.”…’nuff already.

There is nothing vindictive about transparency and truth.

By: reader

reader — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:53:19 +0000

Thanks so much, Jane. Their positions and their own histories are at risk should questions be asked. The conflict of interest is massive. Moving on serves them most of all.