Kelly in Kansas

Another less liberal colleague pointed me to this Opinion Journal article.

It's okay to disagree and hopefully we are all encouraging that among our students as they learn to be more critical thinkers. However, it doesn't make sense to smash the opposition as "un-intelligent" - to use one of the less harsh terms I've heard in person and reported in the media.

Hating the president is almost as old as the republic itself. The people, or various factions among them, have indulged in Clinton hatred, Reagan hatred, Nixon hatred, LBJ hatred, FDR hatred, Lincoln hatred, and John Adams hatred, to mention only the more extravagant hatreds that we Americans have conceived for our presidents.

But Bush hatred is different. It's not that this time members of the intellectual class have been swept away by passion and become votaries of anger and loathing. Alas, intellectuals have always been prone to employ their learning and fine words to whip up resentment and demonize the competition. Bush hatred, however, is distinguished by the pride intellectuals have taken in their hatred, openly endorsing it as a virtue and enthusiastically proclaiming that their hatred is not only a rational response to the president and his administration but a mark of good moral hygiene.

Some are in an uproar over Bush firing 8 US Attorneys. Clinton fired 93!

Labels: attorneys, Bush, Clinton, firing, hatred