bettershorter.com

Look at Drudge, which has on his front page a photo of Gore - a la Howard Dean - screaming like a mad man during his speech today. I’m sure the speech has plenty of other evidence that Gore has lost it, but I couldn’t get past the third paragraph, which has this nugget:

And now he [Bush] will not honor our fallen dead by attending any funerals or even by permitting photos of their flag-draped coffins.

In fact, there are two arguments why Bush won’t allow the coffins to be photographed: (1) if you’re willing to give Bush the benefit of the doubt, it’s because such photos would be too upsetting to the families of the dead and the soldiers who remain in service, or (2) if you think Bush is a crapweasel, it’s because he doesn’t want to hurt morale on the home front with the true reality of the war.

For those who want the photos shown for the second reason — and Gore is clearly one of them — I disagree that the educational value of the photos outweighs the damage they do, but that’s a value judgment on which reasonable people can disagree. But Gore hides the reason he wants the photos shown. He says it would honor those soldiers. Well, maybe in his warped world, but most anyone can see it’s a completely illogical, disengenuous argument. You don’t honor the dead by allowing reporters and photographers to swarm around a coffin, disrupting military rituals.

Gore’s statement about Bush’s failure to attend any funerals is just as disengenuous. To claim that Bush doesn’t care about the soldiers is absurd. Even the most virulently anti-Bush critic cannot deny the love Bush has displayed for the troops, both as a whole and as individuals — and, frankly, the love they have shown for him on numerous occasions. There are many other reasons why he wouldn’t attend the funerals, and they’re much more compelling — namely, Bush doesn’t want to make a spectacle out of an event that is supposed to be quiet, dignified, and designed to assist the families with their grief.

On both fronts, Gore makes ridiculous arguments to score cheap political points. What gets me so upset about this is that his arguments, and those of the extreme left time after time, is that their arguments assume — indeed, are based upon — the very fundamental bad faith of the other side. That is, you cannot believe the things that Gore has said unless you also believe the other side is evil.

This is why politics in this country are so partisan and nasty. It’s not that Bush has the best interests of the country at heart, but the left believes his efforts are less than optimally effective because he needs to tweak Policy A in Way X. Rather, it’s that he’s a greedy hatemonger trying to destroy all non-Christians and the environment in order to enrich a few buddies in Houston.

If this is the way we speak, we cannot have a conversation.

Fortunately, for my side at least, I believe this path leads to defeat for the Dems. If their leaders are making such assumptions on the campaign trail, they will not connect with voters. The assumptions are so extreme that they won’t resonate with voters. In fact, I confidently predict, they just sound plain crazy. It’s too bad, really — we need two parties contributing to this war. For now, we’ll just have one.

(Sorry for any typos, no time to proof.)