If you read Richard Cohen today and feel bad for him... Read this.

[BurtWorm]

Not likely anyone feels bad for Cohen anymore, but just in case someone does fall for his tears in today's column (sample: "All in all, I was -- I am, and I guess I remain -- the worthy object of ignorant, false and downright idiotic vituperation."), it's worthwhile to read this article by Digby from last August, when he was off on another "self-hating liberal" tangent:

I've written a lot about Richard Cohen over the years because I think he is a large part of what ails our side in this political/civil war. The liberal elite pundits, whom everyone assumes speak for "reasonable Democrats" are the first link in a chain that defines Democrats as being without conviction or belief. Democratic politicians, the media and the strategists take cues from their positions as to what constitues the "correct" liberal position. And it's killing us.

Richard Cohen is the poster boy for this destructive effete punditry. His claim yesterday that the Plame investigation was "not a major story. It's a crappy little crime and it may not be a crime at all," is just the latest in a long line of cocktail party bon mots that seem almost designed to ruin any chances the Democrats have of making headway in the media. Perhaps there is no better example, however, than this one from November 2000:

Given the present bitterness, given the angry irresponsible charges being hurled by both camps, the nation will be in dire need of a conciliator, a likable guy who will make things better and not worse. That man is not Al Gore. That man is George W. Bush."


At precisely the wrong moment, Cohen made precisely the wrong argument. It is his very special gift. The Republicans can always count on Cohen to give the respectable liberal view that Republicans are really the good guys and prove to everyone else that Democrats are a bunch of wimps.



...


<I hasten to add that Cohen is entitled to his half-baked, lame-assed opinions. I strongly encourage anyone who is enraged with the twit to turn your anger toward other more truly worthy targets and put your vitriol to more productive uses.>

[MADem]

1. What, did he crib his Plame NONSTORY notes from John Fund??

All of the apologists seem to be DESPERATELY trying to shop that theme about town.

Good luck to them and the horse they rode in on....

[BurtWorm]

2. Digby posted another piece on Cohen today

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2006_05_01_digbysblog_archive.html#114716173036525261

[Synnical]

3. Thanks for the link

It's an interesting read.

[gratuitous]

4. Cohen = WATB

Poor Richard, pulling down a hefty six figure salary, guest spots on the "important" talk shows, and invitations to all the finest cocktail parties, and the hoi polloi insist on seeing him as a sell-out and a charlatan. Don't they understand how much it hurts his widdle feelings when people remember his cheerleading for the All-American Death Machine. "C'mon guys, it's me! Richard Cohen," he whines. "I'm liberal! I'm reasonable! I’m the heir apparent to David Broder! Please love me. Pretty please? Oh sure, I’m wrong from time to time. Lethally wrong, wrong in ways that get people killed, waste our national treasure, and prop up undeserving corrupt governments and their officials, but really, is that any reason to be nasty? It’s me – Richard Cohen."

[liberalcanuck]

16. That's great. n/t

[Ms. Clio]

19. damn that's good

perfecto.

[deutsey]

22. "And, gosh darn it, I'm FUNNY, too"

:eyes:

[Notoverit]

28. A beaut! You got the little weasel!

Personally, I don't think Cohen thinks more that he is a liberal than Koch thinks he is a Democrat. They are professional backstabbers that will emmerge one day - the way Zell did. The cover is as subtle as the "life-time Democrat schtick of C-Span callers.

[blm]

5. I have said for years now that the left "punditry" and journos have been a

significant part of the problem. NONE of them will work together to help any national candidate get elected. The RW pundits and journos are more effective in forming an iron wedge of lies than the left can form a wedge of truth and facts.

The left columnists are more into being clever and original and refuse to be part of a message machine. That's fine for 3 yrs, but during the general election year timeframe they should leave egos behind and FORCEFEED the voters the TRUTH they need to hear and do it FROM THE SAME PAGE!

[BurtWorm]

11. I don't know how anyone could consider someone who thought

Bush was the man the US needed to heal the country's wounds after election 2000 is "left." Cohen is just pure Washington mush. That's the problem with most of what passes for "liberal" punditry in the US. It's all inside and cozy with the winger pundits and powermongers who just laugh in its face in return.

[blm]

14. Or the ones who fell into the 9-11 trap "Thank god Gore isn't president"

that you just know Rove engineered with those fake polls that kept coming out for months after 9-11, even comparing Clinton and Bush with Bush always the preferred choice to fight terror.

[wtmusic]

6. Always interesting to hear the Vietnam/Nixon analogy

redredged to shore up someone's centrist POV (of course, one could just as well argue it was the middle-of-the-road appeasers who failed to put Humphrey over the edge--they ended up being on the losing side of the war, didn't they?)

[0007]

23. It is a waste of time.

John Fund & Cohen scours the sewers of D.C. for any thought that may appeal to their liking.

[katinmn]

7. Cohen was taunting people on the thankyoustephencolbert site

I was reading some of the messages that were posted and he started spamming and arguing points. He was not leaving thank you notes but challenges, along with his email address. That is the only way he'd get 3500 emails. Hell, I wrote him one. Never paid any attention to him before and I am done with him now.

[BurtWorm]

8. Do you think you could find some of his spams and link to one?

Or quote it here. This would be fun to throw in his face.

[katinmn]

13. I actually wrote the post numbers down

I shared it with the site owner because he was baiting people and trying to get a response. That was few days ago and I doubt I still have that scrap of paper. I think it was 3800-something. Now there are over 50,000 posts!

[BurtWorm]

15. Okay, he really needs to be called on this.

I know it looks like I'm contradicting my concluding reamrk in the OP, but it boils my blood to think he's trying to pass himself off as a passive victim of the left's ire for merely having an opinion.

(I still would discourage people from "mobbing him" with abusive e-mails, which is essentially to give him what he wants to make himself feel like a victim and for fodder for another "angry left"-trashing column in the future.)

[katinmn]

41. Ok. Calling out Cohen. Here are his posts.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1141521

[Common Sense Party]

48. That wasn't Cohen. That was a cut-and-paster.

[NoAmericanTaliban]

9. Cohen is your typical right wing chickenhawk Bush apologist

If he likes the war in Iraq so much he should go over there and report it...even better he should join the military and fight, but just like his fellow bullying chickenhawks he is 'yella'& wants others to do his fighting for him.

[kaygore]

10. Cohen has a right to his opinion, but he should acknowledge that

it i an opinion to the right and, like Joe Liberman, stop calling himself a Democrat and recognize that he has indeed succumbed to the dark side.

[grasswire]

12. prove it, Richard

These whining WaPo people are always claiming barrages of hate mail from the left.

It's time for some proof. Print the e-mails, Richard. Prove it.

[Eurobabe]

17. Typical Bu$h -loving douche bag, pay him no mind

hey Dick, the country IS ANGRY, and it's not just Democrats, numbnut!

[Vinnie From Indy]

18. You almost get the sense that he is a wolf in sheeps clothing

An inside man, a plant and an operative. He certainly has written as though Karl Rove were guiding his hand.

In regard to Cohen's self proclaimed comedic genius, I have found that people claiming to be funny usually are not or they are clueless that they are the butt of the jokes. After reading Cohen for the last few years, I am quite certain that he was the "funny" kid in school that would always do what other kids told him to do for a laugh. They told him to eat his crayons and he asked what colors and how many and everybody had a big snicker. He was the kid that licked the falgpole in the winter to the howls of his friends.

He is that kid. He hasn't stopped doing the bidding of others for approval and now the laugh is on his readers as well as his pathetic soul.

[progressivebydesign]

20. I DO think that it's wrong to send profanity laden emails to people.

Regardless of how you feel about what they've written. If you wouldn't say it to someone if you met them on the street, then refrain from doing that in emails. I definitely fire off the profanity to emphasis my point on these forums, but I don't use it toward others.. nor in my emails. That is pretty damn childish. He has a point about the filthy emails... but I take issue with his pushing the republican meme that Democrats are not supposed to be angry, and it's going to hurt us.. when the Republicans bathe in anger daily as part of their entire presence on radio and tv. I sent Cohen a polite email addressing all that.

If people are sending nasty emails.. then they are really making a mistake. the read turns off of the message instantly when they are attacked like that. It's ridiculously counter-productive.

[smartvoter]

26. I think you are right on all these accounts. nt

[BurtWorm]

27. Cohen actually seems to relish being attacked.

But that's no excuse to attack him.

What you say about anger is right on the money, as far as I'm concerned. PZ Myers of pharyngula.org makes a similar point, that anger toward what the Bushists have been doing to the country is a totally appropriate response.

[deutsey]

29. Yes, I don't doubt that Cohen did get some repulsive emails

People who send him and others like him such hate mail do a huge disservice to our cause.

Assuming he isn't being a crybaby and exaggerating the number of vile emails he received.

I know I sent him a critical but civil letter. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.

[BurtWorm]

33. katinmn above says Cohen went looking for confrontartion.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1139504&mesg_id=1139723

[deutsey]

34. Yeah, I know...he's a jerk, but I still think people should be harsh

but civil in their critiques.

Being vulgar and "hateful" only enables people like Cohen to say, "See? Look at these unreasonable fanatics."

[BurtWorm]

36. I totally agree.

He's not worth the electrons spilled on him. The only reason he matters at all is that he's got a bullier pulpit than most of us. But his wishy-washiness guarantees him to be about as influential on the public mood as a Marmaduke cartoon.

[katinmn]

42. Here are his posts on www.thankyoustephencolbert.org

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1141521&mesg_id=1141521

[BurtWorm]

43. Thanks for looking for them!

I was doing the same and couldn't find them.

:toast:

[Common Sense Party]

47. Those aren't his posts. Someone else was cutting and pasting

his Colbert-reaction column. This is so obvious.

You think a Washington Post columnist is going to be spending time "taunting" people on a Colbert website?

[Common Sense Party]

49. Why would Cohen cut and paste sections of his column and

post them on a thank-you-Colbert website forum?

Answer: he didn't.

"Looking for confrontation"??? More like someone else was looking to stir up a hornet's nest and send more e-mails to fill up Cohen's inbox.

[kiki]

21. I never heard of this guy until the other day.

The fact that he was or even still is considered "liberal" by anyone seemed like some sort of joke, and not in a funny way.

Poor little Richard - or should that be little Dick. Just another whining fascist enabler as far as I can tell. I can't imagine him ever seeming any different.

[NastyDiaper]

24. We Don't be Hating...

...we just want the likes of Cohen to earn his Salary. Report on being called out Cohen, not hated. I got plenty of hate for Judy Miller tho.

Colbert defends America when lesser men cut and run.

[Julius Civitatus]

25. Look what Cohen wrote in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq

Seriously, a Freeper could have written this:

A Winning Hand for Powell

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A32571-2003Feb5

It is time once again to quote my favorite philosopher -- Tevye, the lead character from "Fiddler on the Roof." It was his habit to weigh his options by saying, "On the one hand, " and then, "On the other hand," until he confronted a situation where there was no other hand. This is where Colin Powell brought us all yesterday.

The evidence he presented to the United Nations -- some of it circumstantial, some of it absolutely bone-chilling in its detail -- had to prove to anyone that Iraq not only hasn't accounted for its weapons of mass destruction but without a doubt still retains them. Only a fool -- or possibly a Frenchman -- could conclude otherwise.

...

The French, though, are so far deaf to such logic. Their foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, said that the consequences of war are dire and unpredictable. He is right about that. But the consequences of doing nothing -- and mere containment of Iraq amounts to nothing -- are also dire and somewhat predictable. The United Nations will be revealed as a toothless debating society -- a duty-free store on the East River -- and every rogue will have learned a lesson from Saddam Hussein: Stall until everyone loses interest.

...

As with Tevye, there is no "other hand" when it comes to Iraq. If anyone had any doubt, Powell proved that it has defied international law -- not to mention international norms concerning human rights -- and virtually dared the United Nations to put up or shut up. There is no other hand. There is no choice.

He even uses the word "French" as an insult. Aren't you glad he is the "liberal voice" of the Washington Post?
Who's next, Instapundit?

[BurtWorm]

35. What utter crap. What does he say now that Powell disowned it?

Answer: Assholes who insulted him spell doom for the Democrats.

:eyes:

[norml]

30. Time to enter Richard Cohen in the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest?

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

--Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)


http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/


"The e-mails pulse in my queue, emanating raw hatred.....The hatred is back. I know it's only words now appearing on my computer screen, but the words are so angry, so roiled with rage, that they are the functional equivalent of rocks once so furiously hurled during antiwar demonstrations."

--Richard Cohen (2006)


Richard Cohen is a dark and stormy knight of turgid typings, as well as (according to him) having been a class clown of great renown.

He deserves this award.

As inspired by this thread...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1138863&mesg_id=1138863

And as posted on this thread...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1139998&mesg_id=1139998

[Dr Fate]

31. He ENDORSED Bush over Gore & now he is lecturing us upon a high horse?

No wonder he hates Democrats- he does not even vote for them.

[mikeanike]

32. maybe you don't like him

Because you feel we are in a "civil war" as you put it. I'm all for hyperbole and metaphor and what not but come on. Are you that removed from what a true civil war is? I concur that we are in a political war. But that's nothing new. I agree that Cohen is blowing things out of proportion. Due to the anonymity the internet offers us, we all can get a little too harsh on one another. And yes, he was an idiot for saying what he did in 2000. Overall I guess I'm just quibbling with you, all in all a very good post!

[CAcyclist]

37. He's never been a liberal

You don't get to be a liberal just by saying you are. You have to walk the talk - you have to actually even talk correctly. I have never read anything by Cohen that has made me believe he was even a Democrat, much less a liberal. No, he is nothing more than a poser.

[JAbuchan08]

38. I wrote the bastard another letter

He seems to consider himself a friend to liberals all the while sniping at them from his position at the Neo-cons right hand. Sure Cohen can be my friend - when he starts acting like one.

[hfojvt]

39. indeed, with friends like that ...

Clearly also wrong about this "All in all, I was -- I am, and I guess I remain -- the worthy object of ignorant, false and downright idiotic vituperation."

The vituperation of the left blogosphere is usually not ignorant or false. We are all to aware that he has earned it.

[wryter2000]

40. Excellent analysis

I've never thought of it that way, but that's probably 100% correct.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

44. Here's my e-mail to Cohen:

The subject line said: It's clear nobody pats you in the ass better than you do

I don't know whether to laugh at your "poor, poor pitiful me" column of today (May 9, 2006, "Digital Lynchmob"), or just admit to myself that you're one the most self-absorbed pricks in journalism today. You write about yourself and your feelings incessantly. Spare us, please. Get thee to a shrink, discuss your self-worth (or lack thereof), pour out whatever you are currently pouring about yourself into your column, and use it for something a bit more interesting than you. Dead molusks, for example.

Sincerely thinking of buying you a mirror,

Sarita

P.S. And no matter what Republican grease you've been greased with, Colbert *was* funny as hell. People in the audience laughed. And I laughed. As the mentally challenged dumbass whose buds stole the election from the American people sat there trying to laugh at Colbert jokes he barely understood, yes, I laughed. Laughter is important when dealing with fascist assholes like Bush.

[The Wizard]

45. Some people are saying

Of course blowing the cover of a CIA undercover operative and her brass plate cover company exposed by the "security" Administration is a non story. But a stained blue dress probably gave the self loathing son of Abraham a three day boner. He must be Rummy, the Dummy and Dick's favorite liberal journalist. Some are saying he's Zell Miller's gay lover. Now that's funny.:evilgrin:

[Joe Chi Minh]

46. I don't feel sorry for him. Mentally retarded folk are usually very

happy souls.