Monday Morning Flak Attack: Extra-Special Hack Whack

Well, as expected, there was a lot of competition for Flak Attack heroes of the week.

First, there was the Ben and Bradley show, wherein Merkley partisans first tried to tie Steve Novick to Karl Marx and then attempted to smear him with a comically breathless post attacking a Novick campaign volunteer for describing him as the Jon tester of 2008.

And of course, much has been written on Geraldine Ferraro's comments about how black men have an unfair leg up in American politics. I'd just like to ad to the banter that it's really sad to see such a prominent and important politician go down in history as a bitter crazy person.

I have the feeling she'll be followed not far behind by Bill and Hillary Clinton, who this week argued that votes in Michigan should be counted out of respect for the voters and for democracy. She conveniently left out the fact that her name was the only one on the ballot, and her name was on the ballot after she and all the other candidates agreed not to put their names on the ballot. She's just awful.

There was a lot of good campaign flak this week, and I want to congratulate all of the above for their valiant and inspired contributions. In any other week, they'd have been contenders for the top prize. But this week's prize is going elsewhere.

Winner of the Monday Morning Flak Attack (Extra-Special Hack Whack) is Oregonian columnist David Reinhard.

We're all used to the regurgitated GOP talking points and an almost painful lack of original ideas from the paper's resident conservative. But Reinhard's most recent ravings reached an all-time low.

Riffing off a local conservative talk radio host's attempt to get attention and boost ratings, Reinhard urges Oregon Republicans to re-register as Democrats and vote for Hillary Clinton in the primary.

It's bad enough when a columnist for a Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper starts advocating deceitful behavior intended to undermine the votes of people who do take seriously their responsibility in the democratic process, but it gets much, much worse. Reinhard raves on:

"One, is this ethical? Is it fair to play in the other party's sandbox and help pick their nominee? Answer: This is politics. What's ethics got to do with it?"

That statement shouldn't come as a shock, especially for anyone who's glanced at the campaigns of George W. Bush. A lack of regard for right and wrong during elections has been standard operating procedure for Bush/Rove Co. since Dubya first ran for governor.

No, the most shocking bit of nonsense in Reinhard's low-grade rant was a revealing bit of that grand old messianic complex that he apparently shares with George "I've been chosen by God" Bush:

When is it unethical to act in the best interest of the nation?

Translation: No matter what Reinhard does, it's OK because he's decided that it's for the greater good.

Well, I've got a question for Reinhard: What if every sociopath on the planet justified his or her actions that way?

The low-brow arrogance and outright danger of that kind of thinking packs quite a wallop. It wreaks of a notion that most certainly was widely held in at least one monstrously irresponsible European country in the 1930s and 40s.

Here's a simple thought that seems to have eluded Reinhard's grasp:

What's best for the nation is that people in power show some RESPECT for democracy and stop trying to game it with stupid shenanigans and silly B.S.

How about politicians and political parties start trying to win votes in a battle of ideas rather than using fear, smear, distortion, silly scandals, gerrymandering and childish party-crossing dishonesty?

This is what's best for the country: Stop the bullshit and treat voters and our system with respect rather than contempt.

Is that too much to ask? Seems so!

Editor's Note: This week's honorable mention for Monday Morning Flak Attack (Extra-Special Hack Whack) goes to The Oregonian Opinion pages for giving the light of day (in what is supposed to be a respectable newspaper) to the kind of adolescent, shock-jock-trashiness of ideas reflected in Reinhard's column. It really is beneath them. Or so I thought.