Loyal adversary

by Ron Coleman | September 14, 2008 11:55 pm

Anyone out there still thinking “four years of the Democrats to teach America a lesson[1]“?

I’m sure no one but me missed the dustup over photographer Jill Greenberg’s unprofessional behavior in her purported role as photojournalist. It’s so embarrassing even the center-left Atlantic is embarrassed [2] (via Insty[3]) by her antics.

Here’s the thing. Dirty tricks are one thing. All is fair in love and war. It’s part of the fun.

But read what this woman did, according to the New York Post[4]:

Greenberg later decided to use some of the images she was assigned to take to make a political statement.

Her Web site now features a series of Photoshopped pics of McCain in some highly unflattering poses – including one that has a monkey squirting dung onto the Republican candidate’s head. Another one reads ‘I am a bloodthirsty warmongerer,’ with McCain retouched to have needle-sharp shark teeth and a vicious grin, while licking blood-smeared lips.”

This is not a “political statement,” unless you firmly believe that a four year old is capable of a political statement. Juvenile, yes; and much more. Jill Greenberg has what they call, in her neighborhood, “serious issues” involving doo-doo, and then some.

The problem is, she is not alone. She is not embarrassed; among her set, you can be sure she is being toasted tonight for “speaking truth to power,” the eternal lefty lie implying that there is actually some kind of risk in being a harsh critic of a national politician in this country.

And while I know this piece will generate gutless anonymous comments here or on my own blog about how “Republicans can dish it out but they can’t take it,” it’s simply not true just for the saying it.

First of all, it’s irrelevant what we can “take,” because this sort of thing does no harm to the candidate at all. The point is that no actual conservative journalist would ever stoop to this — not because it is particularly tasteless, or particularly harsh or unfair criticism. For that, we have Anne Coulter. In fact it’s none of those things. No, this kind of stuff — what’s troubling is that, on the Left, it’s not that unusual — but… well, it’s … mental. And remember, they say we’re the ones with the problems[5].

Ron Coleman’s pretty good blog is Likelihood of Success[6].