Stocking the Pond v. 1

Off Greenland, Glenn gives Peggy Noonan’s latest Wall Street Journal opinion piece (“Be Reasonable”) a much needed thrashing. A summary of Noonan’s article looks like: “Reasonability is golden. Romney = cheerful = reasonable. Edwards = haircut = unreasonable.” She gives the other candidates an up or down vote on reasonableness, except for Kucinich and Paul, who are so desperately unreasonable for wanting crazy things like habeas corpus and a decisive end to the Iraq war. Her vapid and sexually-coded comments about Edwards and his legendary haircut are particularly vomit-inducing, especially against the backdrop of Bhutto’s assassination and American’s failed diplomatic and military strategy in the region.

One advantage of having a comment blog is that I can copy-edit my comments when I repost them here. For instance, in my original comment I left out the opening “Although,” which torpedoes my chances of having the comment designated as an “Editor’s Choice” by Salon.com (sniff). Anyway, here’s what I had to say about Greenwald on Noonan this morning:

The Beltway Nauseates

Although Noonan’s article was probably in press before the assassination of Bhutto, recent world events underscores the idiocy of her article and worldview. It has that arm’s-distance above-it-all pundit tone, with all the vapidity and pseudo-cuteness of Maureen Dowd. Thank you for calling out “poofing” as a sexual slur. Like Dowd, gender and sexuality reign supreme, the lens through which we should evaluate American politics.

I saw another dig at Edwards through her praise of Romney. “Characterological cheerfulness, personal stability and a good brain would be handy to have around. He hasn’t made himself wealthy by seeing the world through a romantic mist.” I read the “romantic mist” phrase as a response to Edward’s years as a trial lawyer, championing the underdog and taking on deep pockets. Also, unless I’m voting for 8th grade student council president, why should I care about “cheerfulness” as a reasonable adult voter?

-- temperance