Rich Lowry of National Review: Fool, Hypocrite, and Liar

Of course, fool, hypocrite, and liar can be said about so many conservative leaders, can't it? Little Richie is all upset about a forthcoming new book that (accurately) compares the Radical Right to the Islamic radicals. The outstanding Glenn Greeenwald chews Little Richie up and spits him out here. Excerpt:

I know it's not news that Rich Lowry is an intellectually dishonest hack. And I also know it's not news that the brain of right-wing authoritarians allows its host to blithely accuse others of exactly that which they do. Still, as common as it is, there are times when I'm amazed at how compartmentalized and self-blinding the human brain can be.

Shouldn't a normally functioning brain send a signal to Lowry along the lines of: "You can't complain that it makes someone an 'extremist' to compare 'the other side in the American political discussion' to Islamic radicals because one of your magazine's Senior Editors just recently wrote a book comparing liberals to Nazis, and another one of them wrote a book calling them the Party of Death? Forget intellectual honesty; just as a strategic matter, in order not to expose yourself as a wildly dishonest and hypocritical polemicist, shouldn't the brain intervene and at least tell the person that they should alter their criticisms so it's not blatantly attacking exactly what their closest comrades do? Yet somehow, the brain never sends that signal -- or it never gets received -- and people like Rich Lowry can sit there with a straight face and attack someone for doing exactly that which his own writers do, without any apparent recognition of that fact at all. If nothing else, it's a wonder to behold as a biological and psychological phenomenon.

Heh heh heh.