I'm proud of never having kissed Joe Klein's ass

[Becky72]

Does Joe Klein, the phony liberal, want a public option? We don't know. But we go gaga about a piece he wrote, in which he scolds Obama for not making "rookie mistakes" regarding healthcare and torture.

This is why I'm baffled by the popularity of that piece, in which he does not mention the public option once:

What should the President have done? Well, there's a path between the 1,300-page Clinton health-care plan and the 1,000-page Henry Waxman plan that will be voted on in the House. The President could have laid out a set of principles and said, "I will veto any bill that doesn't contain the following ..." (Indeed, he still could do so.) They should be clear, simple, popular and achievable. My list would include insurance reform, health-care exchanges, near universal coverage and tort reform. (Obama's position on tort reform is another abdication of responsibility: he says he's open to it, knowing the congressional Democrats are closed to it.)

Klein has a list, and the public option is not in it. But so what! We will recommend his piece because it sounds progressive.

Then Klein pretends that he wants Dick Cheney prosecuted. But his real intention was to protest Eric Holder's decision to prosecute the CIA interrogators whose practices were beyond even the flawed DOJ guidelines.

Klein does not mention the threats to kill prisoners' daughters.
Klein does not mention the many prisoners who died during interrogations.
Klein does not explain why he never called for prosecutions when it counted.

I'm proud to say that I've never kiss this guy's ass. And did he mention he recently said Glen Greenwald didn't care for the national security of our country because Greenwald wanted to investigate torture?

[Hieronymus]

1. Me too, I never liked that horse's ass.

[rusty charly]

2. There's a hysterical Joe Klein story floating around.

Let me see if I can find it.

Here we go:

"Last week I went to a cookout on the beach here with some old friends (Sausages and seafood, but no cocktail weenies!) Every year they do a cookout, and then a birthday party, and for years I've known that one of their guests was Joe Klein. I never mixed it up with him because, after all, well...the opportunity never presented itself and while I'm pretty aggressive in print no one really goes up to someone and picks a quarrel with them, do they?"

http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2009/08/no-wait-i-know-this-one-answer-to-who.html

[Marsala]

3. Is it this one?

http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2009/08/no-wait-i-know-this-one-answer-to-who.html

Best line: “you don't read me! You read WIKIPEDIA! AND THAT'S LEFTIST.”

[rusty charly]

4. Yep!

[yowzayowzayowza]

7. "...Media Whores Online (of sainted memory?). " Indeed!!!! n/t

[Ken Burch]

5. This was the same Joe Klein that was Rudy Giuliani's biggest fan

This was Joe "Why Democrats Must Govern From The Center" Klein.

This was Joe "Anonymous" Klein.

This was Joe "Oh My God, I can't handle it that Woody Guthrie, in the middle of the Depression, favored the overthrow of the capitalist system so I'll spend the whole book freaking out about it" Klein.

Why did anyone who wasn't a Republican EVER listen to this guy?

[Faygo Kid]

6. Tort deform is a joke. It has nothing to do with health care costs.

It has everything to do with taking the average person's right to access the justice system away from them. Period.

[immoderate]

8. Yes.

Couldn't say it better.

--imm

[grantcart]

9. We were also proud until we learned that you kissed his . . .. . . instead.

[Becky72]

11. I don't understand

Can you explain what you meant by that?

[grantcart]

12. just being snarky because of your "kiss your ass" subject line

Your OP is correct Klein wants to be admired as a leading intellectual and does so by offering has been second hand ideas.

[Becky72]

13. oh ok :-) n/t

[Becky72]

10. self-delete

Sorry.