False equivalencies by Glenn Greenwald

In a Nov. 6 article at Salon.com, Glenn Greenwald quotes a Maureen Dowd piece in The New York Times that equated the Clinton presidency with the Bush presidency and then said that Barack Obama "has the chance to make the White House pristine again."

Greenwald argues that Dowd's argument doesn't hold water:

"These things are not equal. They're not even comparable. But in her desperation to establish false equivalencies -- the central article of faith in the modern journalist's religion -- Dowd argues that Clinton dirtied the White House by having oral sex and liking hot tubs, and, likewise, George Bush also dirtied it by destroying the Constitution, torturing people, invading and destroying another country based on false pretenses and spying on American citizens (and, just by the way, Bush and Cheney weren't 'making torture and domestic spying legal'; they were doing those things in violation of the law).

"The stain Bill Clinton left on Monica Lewinsky's dress isn't remotely comparable to the stain George Bush and Dick Cheney have left on the Constitution, our political values and our national imagge -- to say nothing of the indelible bloodstains on their hands. But for so long, Beltway journalists have treated those things as though they're equal; more accurately, they were -- and remain -- far more offended by the former than the latter. To this day, David Broder still insists that Bill Clinton should have been forced to resign ove the sex he had with Monica Lewinsky, whereas nothing that George Bush did merits removal from office or even resignation, and especially not criminal investigation and prosecution (holding lawbreaking Bush officials accountable is to commit the ultimate Beltway sin of 'criminalizing our politics'").


Greenwald is absolutely correct and his observations will become more significant in the days ahead as the Bush criminals try to avoid prosecution for their crimes. Rest assured the Limbaugh's, Coulter's, O'Reilly's and the other right wing scum will be crying that Bush did nothing worse than other presidents, especially that bad guy, Bill Clinton. Unfortunately, joining their chorus of weeping will be other, less rabid, pundits.

Real all of Greenwald's article here.