The Smell Test
August 7, 2013 - by
All I can say about Gary’s column on D.G. Martin is – “Amen.”
In the fourteen years I’ve known D.G., I’ve never heard him say an unkind word about anyone – so Claude Pope claiming he’d called Republicans Nazis just didn’t pass the smell test.
Here’s the column D.G. wrote. Take a look at it. Ole Claude, out of paranoia, foolishness, or a plain mean streak, indulged in a fact twist.
A political pundit had said Republicans ‘overreaching’ in the legislature was natural for folks who’d been out of power for a long time, and D.G. pointed out that, in his book, In the Garden of the Beasts, Erik Larson reported Joseph Goebbels had used pretty much the same explanation for Nazi excesses back in the 1930’s.
It’s a subtle but straightforward point: Comparing the pundit’s explanation to what Goebbels said eighty years ago was not calling Republicans Nazis. But Claude wasn’t about to let anything as fragile as a fact stand in his way.
Here’s my point: There’s not much difference between Rev. Barber twisting a fact so he can howl Republicans are turning back the clock to the days of Jim Crow and Claude Pope twisting a fact so he can howl at D.G.
The Smell Test
August 7, 2013/
All I can say about Gary’s column on D.G. Martin is – “Amen.”
In the fourteen years I’ve known D.G., I’ve never heard him say an unkind word about anyone – so Claude Pope claiming he’d called Republicans Nazis just didn’t pass the smell test.
Here’s the column D.G. wrote. Take a look at it. Ole Claude, out of paranoia, foolishness, or a plain mean streak, indulged in a fact twist.
A political pundit had said Republicans ‘overreaching’ in the legislature was natural for folks who’d been out of power for a long time, and D.G. pointed out that, in his book, In the Garden of the Beasts, Erik Larson reported Joseph Goebbels had used pretty much the same explanation for Nazi excesses back in the 1930’s.
It’s a subtle but straightforward point: Comparing the pundit’s explanation to what Goebbels said eighty years ago was not calling Republicans Nazis. But Claude wasn’t about to let anything as fragile as a fact stand in his way.
Here’s my point: There’s not much difference between Rev. Barber twisting a fact so he can howl Republicans are turning back the clock to the days of Jim Crow and Claude Pope twisting a fact so he can howl at D.G.