Senator Rick Santorum got airtime with Sean Hannity June 21st to announce that WMDs have been found, finally! Sean, in his probing style, took the announcement hook, line and sinker. By the end of his show, he was disarming Whoopi Goldberg by talking about the found WMDs as if they were fait accompli. This is what Sean does best. He repeats, with unwavering conviction, a distortion as if it were fact. To the uninitiated and his faithful, it becomes fact, making any discussion based on truth virtually impossible. When the misrepresentation eventually runs its course or is exposed for what it is, he moves on to the next one. Its hard to hit a moving target. Some facts on Santorums WMD announcement. He received this breaking news from documents that Negroponte recently declassified. The documents claim that a pre-desert-storm munitions cache comprising 500 weapon casings with chemical warheads were discovered. These weapons were buried as part of Iraqs plan to eliminate WMDs following the first Iraqi war. These weapons are fifteen years old and useless. Even the Pentagon and the White House have no interest in sighting these weapons as proof of WMDs. In fact, they clamored down the Pentagon hallways, as Santorum was uttering the closing remarks to his announcement, to proclaim emphatically that these are not the weapons in question. But they are the weapons Senator Insantorum and Political Entertainer Insannity are hanging their hats on. Let the lies and distortions begin. Some facts about Seans relationship to Rick. Back in February, Hannity participated in a fund raising breakfast for Senator Santorums campaignso much for fair and balanced. Recently, Sean, in his declarative, dismissive way, announced that Santorum had gained twelve points in the polls on his senatorial opponent during the past three months. He never mentioned which poll. The fact is the best Santorum managed was five points in the Keystone pollso much for the pursuit of truth. Interestingly enough though, if you add up the polls conducted, it comes out to eleven points. Hmm, you dont think Insannity could be that stupid, or that bad at addition, or worse, think we are that gullible. So why? Why are they claiming the WMDs have been found? Personally, I think they might be insane, therefore the nicknames. But that is my anger speaking. More likely, they are in complete denial. They find it impossible to believe that their beloved administration sent us to war based on false intelligence. They are seeking redemption. I suppose redemption is an important pursuit for a couple of guys who dont know the first thing about war. Sean has talked openly about his aversion to taking direct orders from a drill sergeant as his reason for not serving. I dont know why Santorum chose not to serve. Youd think, given their personal decisions to pass on military service, they both would want to be very careful about matters of war. Apparently, their self-interests trump sensibility. Having said all that, here is the problem that boils my blood. Their distortions keep the debate from being argued with truths. Senator Lautenberg and Howard Dean distort in the same way. There are plenty of them on both sides of the aisle. Cut and Run or Lie and Die! We have heard them all. These misleading charges, the gross generalities, the purposeful misuse of words, and in some cases, the lies, do nothing but stoke the fires of emotion and tickle the votes of fringe party bases, when cooler heads and serious dialogue are what we need to prevail. Unfortunately, each day we argue in stalemate is another day U.S. service men and service women die, Iraqi innocents are slaughtered, Afghanistan is weakened, Al Qaeda emboldened and future terrorists born. That is what angers me. And at the end of the day, it is our fault. We continue to vote them in. We continue to watch their shows. We continue to listen to their voices. We continue this madness. |
