Not A Hypocrite by virtue of Insanity?

David Brock (image on left) is the founder (in 2004) of Media Matters for America. He was at one time a right wing journalist (this was during the Clinton era) and then early in the Bush presidency became a left wing journalist.

As an organization, Media Matters is pro gun control. In fact, in 2010, Media Matters took in $600k in contributions specifically earmarked for pro gun control advocacy. 

However, it seems that David Brock, has armed guards. Not only that, the armed guards do not seem to be licensed to carry guns (as the organization is in Washington DC where obtaining a license is difficult to impossible).

So it would seem that Mr. Brock is a hypocrite.

However, what if, Mr. Brock is insane. Apparently he has had previous problems with mental illness (beginning about the time he moved to the left much to the amusement of some conservatives). He is apparently abusive to employees, etc. Of course there is the obvious issue of why anyone who is, essentially, a hack leftist lobbyist would think people are trying to kill him. Assuming he is insane, his hypocrisy is not conscious and thus he wouldn't actually be considered a 'real' hypocrite, merely a technical hypocrite.   


One investigation (by hotair) of Media Matter (specifically on gun control) is here.
One Media Matters policy post on gun control is here.
Another (more recent) such post on gun control is here.
Daily Caller's investigation of the armed guards is here.
Daily Caller's followup of that situation is here.

Charles Blow and the twitter hypocrisy

Charles Blow (image shows him speaking at an event) is a columnist with the NYTimes. Back in 2008, he praised then Senator Obama for addressing the issue of single parenthood and its effect on society.

Now it is 2012 and when Mitt Romney made statements on the same issue that seem to me to be quite similar to Obama's 2008 comments, Mr. Blow had this to say on Twitter (the actual twitter post is no longer available),

"Let me just tell you this Mitt 'Muddle Mouth': I'm a single parent and my kids are *amazing*! Stick that in your magic underwear. #CNNdebate""

Mr. Blow has since apologized for that tweet (the reference to magic underwear has to do with the garments of high level Mormon officials) as being bigoted but not for being hypocritical.

Mr. Blow has since the apology tweeted another seemingly bigoted comment and it is still there two days later. The comment is,

"Time to scratch some of this right wing lice out of my timeline. Be back in a sec... #block"

In any event, the 2008 Obama quote and the 2012 Romney quote seem similar to me so I consider Mr. Blow to be a hypocrite (this blog isn't about bigotry but it seems that bigotry might be the factor that makes Mr. Blow unable to see his problem). Of course, if I'm wrong, then its not necessarily hypocrisy.



I'm getting the twitter quotes from Tom McGuire's blog "Just a Minute" because of the twitter deletion by Mr. Blow. That site also conveniently has both the Romney quote and the Obama quote.
Feb 23 tweet by Mr. Blow noted above is here.

Glenn Greenwald Calls His Best Friends 'Hypocrites'

or does he?

Actually, Glenn goes further than that. The opinion piece is called "Repulsive Progressive Hypocrisy". He also uses the phrase "repulsive liberal hypocrisy". He also has this interesting sentence,

"...Indeed: is there even a single liberal pundit, blogger or commentator who would have defended George Bush and Dick Cheney if they (rather than Obama) had been secretly targeting American citizens for execution without due process, or slaughtering children, rescuers and funeral attendees with drones, or continuing indefinite detention even a full decade after 9/11? Please. How any of these people can even look in the mirror, behold the oozing, limitless intellectual dishonesty, and not want to smash what they see is truly mystifying to me."

The crux of Glenn's argument is that many progressives (or leftists or liberals) criticized Bush Administration officials for example, for wiretapping foreigners with expedited judicial permits but Obama decided to assassinate an American (who was working with foreign terrorists overseas) without even getting a judicial permit.

It is a telling point but here is the problem. Greenwald does not name a single individual person. Maybe he is too lazy to do this, maybe he couldn't find a case he liked, maybe he doesn't want to offend any individual but is willing to criticize a whole demographic.

Whatever the reason, the charge of hypocrisy isn't proved.

Glenn's Opinion Piece is in salon here

Jim Messina - Hypocrite by Using the Wrong Cliche

Yeseterday, the White House signaled to big donors that they were launching an effort to get substantial sums of money to SuperPacs for use in the 2012 Presidential Election Campaign (the image of President Obama was at this campaign event). White House officials and senior advisors and cabinet secretaries will be speaking at fundraising affairs for these superPacs. President Obama famously said in 2010 that corporate funding of elections was devestating to the public interest.

However, I'm not commenting on this. I'm commenting on the comment by Jim Messina (at the 2012 event - that is him in the right image) that,

“With so much at stake, we can’t allow for two sets of rules. Democrats can’t be unilaterally disarmed.”

I don't understand the 'unilaterally disarmed' comment although it was presumably supposed to be a metaphor. However, there are literally two (actually more than two) sets of rules. The official Obama for President will play by one set of rules and the Priorities USA Pac will play by another set of rules. So technically Messina is a hypocrit. However, this is simply because he used the wrong cliche. If he had said,

"With so much at stake, we will campaign as hard as it takes for as long as it takes",

he would have gotten the same message across without the hypocrisy.

I don't very many people are very disturbed by Messina's hypocrisy by the way. He is just a flunky.

NYTimes 2012 article on the Obama Campaign containing Jim Messina's comments is here.

Huffpo 2010 article containing Obama's "...devestating to the public interest' comment is here.

NYTimes 2008 article on the Obama Campaign rejecting public financing restrictions is here.