Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform don’t agree on much, but they’re both calling for an investigation and the resignation of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel for his role in Freddie Mac. I don’t know whether to credit their allegations, but the Hamsher-Norquist alliance is interesting nonetheless.
lgm says:
How is this blog different from other conservative blogs? Not much.
Here we have the Instapundit imitation: quote a nutty allegation from a discredited source without comment. Note that Adler does not seem to take a position on the content of the post he linked to. That would embarrass him, as the claim is beyond weak. Still, he propagates the smear to his little corner of the conservative echo chamber.
In case you’re interested, the claim is that Emanuel, when he was associated with Freddie Mac in 2001, may have done something illegal, which he may be covering up now. You want evidence? They don’t need no stinkin’ evidence.
December 26, 2009, 9:46 amDave N. says:
lgm,
You seem to miss the point — perhaps deliberately in your desire to spread your Kos-like talking point (including an insult directed at this blog). The interesting thing to me (and I suspect JA) was that Jane Hamsher and Grover Nordquist actually agreed on something, given the political toxicity between left and right, as amply evidenced by your own sneering post.
(But thanks for playing, the way back to the swamp is the exit to your left)
December 26, 2009, 10:42 amMark Field says:
I suspect left and right have areas where they do agree, though they likely disagree on the cause and/or remedy. This, however, is one of those instances which, IMO, will manage to discredit both.
December 26, 2009, 10:53 amCecil Moon says:
It is lovely to see that remaining warm after-glow of Christmas (et al) has had its magical affect on the commenters. Now that we have that pesky “goodwill” thing out of the way, they can go back to throttling each other.
December 26, 2009, 11:09 amgracchus says:
Criticism of Emanuel on the right is brain stem activity. The criticism from the left, which premeates comments on left blogs on all sorts of topics from health care to foreign policy, is a means of expressing frustration/anger etc. without criticizing Obama himself.
December 26, 2009, 11:14 amArthurKirkland says:
Someone — Clint Eastwood? — observed that when extremists travel far enough to either side, they encounter those approaching from the other direction.
Norquist is among conservatives who have strayed far enough into the Land Self-Awareness Forgot that they excoriate whittling an entitlement program (‘cut Medicare? the godless bastards! how DARE they?’), while Hamsher is among liberals who have reached the same territory, objecting to long-coveted health care reform because they find it not spiced to their taste.
It could be interesting to observe the moment at which Norquist and Hamsher awaken from their benders and recognize precisely whom each has been snuggling.
December 26, 2009, 1:09 pmH1N1 says:
What makes this alliance much less interesting is that Jane Hamsher has lost virtually all of her credibility among “the left” over the last week or so. The fickle members of the Daily Kos went from nearly unanimously loving her to nearly unanimously hating her, and now she has no base. Unlike Grover Norquist, who speaks for huge numbers of people, Hamsher’s signature on a letter means little besides that Hamsher is signing a letter.
December 26, 2009, 1:13 pmKevin! says:
I don’t know if I’d call it being “fickle.” There was a brief, nasty war for the future direction of the Kossacks, born out of frustration with health care reform. Hamsher’s position was to essentially re-enter opposition and attack the Obama administration from the left. Ultimately, the Yglesias/Klein “hate the process, not the president” position won out.
December 26, 2009, 2:00 pmPaul Horwitz says:
Without speaking to the truth or falsity of these allegations, and therefore without meaning either to ignore or dignify them, I agree with a number of other commentators in finding this less extraordinary than you do, Jonathan. Chiefs of staff are often the targets of dissatisfaction with a President and can come from both sides. And ideological extremes are both regularly seized by the view that their adversaries cannot be moderates or people who are trying to split the difference, but must be motivated by some combination of moral failure and corruption. On the latter point, both sides are regularly convinced that the best explanation for disagreement is conspiracy and/or corruption, will seize on any evidence that might confirm this view and disagree with any weakness in that evidence, and will certainly not be inclined to take a more charitable view. A good deal has been written recently about the current and strange bed-fellowship of sectors of the left and right on the health care bill, among other places in The New Republic. (I cite this as evidence of the discussion and the fact that the observation has been made, and thus that any alliance as to Emanuel is neither new nor terribly surprising, and not as agreement or disagreement with the analysis offered there.) And, of course, Emanuel, beyond serving in the crosshairs as chief of staff, has long been a target for animosity that crosses ideological divides. Again, I’m not commenting on the allegations, but on why it should not be terribly surprising that one can find vocal sectors on both the left and right that are willing to make the same accusations.
December 26, 2009, 2:56 pmLeo Marvin says:
Bingo (and Arthur Kirkland too). I read a good take on this by Nate Silver, but I don’t have a link.
December 26, 2009, 4:50 pmMike says:
Hardly, dude. The bailouts were game changer. Have you even been paying attention? Follow the money from Fannie, Freddie, and Goldman Sachs right into Obama’s inner circle.
It’s taking the partisan hacks a while, but intellectually honest liberals were on top of this months ago. Think what you will about Glenn Greenwald, but the facts are the facts. As this post notes, these scam banks have made Obama’s allies rich.
December 26, 2009, 5:15 pmTweets that mention The Volokh Conspiracy » Blog Archive » Left and Right vs. Rahm -- Topsy.com says:
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ernie Vogel, Eugene Volokh. Eugene Volokh said: Left and Right vs. Rahm: Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform don’t agre.. http://bit.ly/6g8HYa [...]
December 26, 2009, 5:39 pmSyd Henderson says:
It does seem odd that they’ve waited until he’s been in office a year to spring it. I have to agree with lgm on this one. It looks like smearing through innuendo.
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December 29, 2009, 9:21 am