Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Wednesday morning

Mir ist schlecht.

But see here ("Extreme unintended irony from a WH official").

A White House official who is too cowardly even to attach his own name to his comments -- who has to hide behind Politico's permanently extended fetal wall of anonymity in order to criticize a member of Congress -- simultaneously accuses Anthony Weiner of being a coward and failing to "man-up." I've written extensively on what the promiscuous use of anonymity says about Beltway journalism, but the unwillingness of so many of the most powerful political officials to speak for attribution reflects how deceitful, manipulative and -- most of all -- fearful they are. Beltway mavens love to deride "bloggers" for writing anonymously, but at least even anonymous bloggers create pseudonyms that enable ongoing accountability; moreover, many of those anonymous bloggers are just ordinary citizens, with no power, who are too vulnerable to write under their real names. But powerful political officials who will spew insults and criticisms only while protected from accountability are just frightened and weak. The fact that one of those cowards, in this case, has to hide who he is while boldly accusing Weiner of being a coward -- the same Weiner who is willing to step up and criticize Obama with his name attached -- is unintended irony so extreme it's hard to express. . . .

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