A one-man Armey

June 8, 2007

I’ve raised a fuss, on more than one occasion, about prominent pols failing to acknowledge their mistakes. With that in mind, I most certainly should be willing to acknowledge my own.

I suggested a few days ago that former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), who joined Time’s Swampland blog for a temporary stint, was a reasonable choice for the magazine to make.

As loathsome as I found Armey’s tenure in Congress, he has been rather provocative lately. During the flap over Kerry’s flubbed joke, he took Kerry’s side. Around the same time, he got into a fight with James Dobson, blasted the GOP’s role in the Terri Schiavo fiasco, and denounced Tom DeLay. A couple of months ago, he told McClatchy that he lamented his 2002 Iraq vote (“Had I been more true to myself and the principles I believed in at the time, I would have openly opposed the whole adventure vocally and aggressively,” he said.)

Given all of this, I thought Armey might offer some insights at Swampland that were at least mildly interesting. He’d offer a conservative perspective, but he’d also, I thought, offer some pointed criticism at the right, some war analysis that runs counter to the White House, etc. I suggested it could make for some compelling blog reading.

I was wrong. Terribly, woefully, embarrassingly wrong. Armey seems entirely unable to conceal his hack-like tendencies and his foray into blogging is painful to watch.

Consider his posts:

* Armey defended Social Security privatization by pointing to Chile’s system — a talking point so vapid that even the White House avoided it in 2005.

* Armey wrote an item on Net Neutrality that didn’t make any sense.

* Armey blathered on about “ownership” while suggesting Social Security should be optional.

* Armey questioned why Republican presidential candidates aren’t talking about Social Security (which he suggested is driving the nation towards “bankruptcy”).

* Armey encouraged the Republican presidential candidates to “prove to America that they’re really about big ideas and small government.” How insightful.

* Armey denounced regulation of health care and condemned “socialized” medicine.

* Armey argued Hillary Clinton isn’t moderate.

* Armey denounced regulation of health care and condemned “socialized” medicine. (Yes, again.)

* Armey said “freedom” is the highest political value.

There is plenty of insightful conservative blogging going on out there in the ‘sphere. This ain’t it.

I hereby apologize for thinking (and writing) that Dick Armey might have something interesting to say. Now I know better.

Looks like another “Dick” lives up to his name.

  • Let’s pull back a little and maybe find some comfort in the “bigger picture” as it were.

    Dick Armey is blogging. He’s not blathering on Fox News or Spewing hate on AM as a guest on Rush. It’s not a one-way conversation. Folks have the power to shout right back at this idiot in the comments section.

    That’s a victory for new media. Even the piggish right-wingers can’t ignor our collective power as bloggers any more.

    Or look at it this way- We’ve forced Garry Kasparov to go up against us in checkers instead of chess, if you will.

    The old media of David Brooks and Rush is dying. That have to play our game now. Exactly what Armey writes is not as important as this larger point.

  • steve, where do you find insightful conservative blogging? i’d really like to know (i.e., this isn’t a snarky question).

  • I’m no fan, but I will give Armey credit for one of the funnier (intentional or not) lines I’ve heard in politics.

    Someone (Arianna Huffington, I think) once asked Armey: “Are you the Dick Armey?”. Armey responded: “Well, I’m a Dick Armey.”

    Heh.

  • Speaking of embarrassing former Republican members of Congress, the Philadelphia Daily News published a story yesterday (link below) about Curt Weldon’s firm, Defense Solutions LLC, investigating corruption at a major Bangladesh corruption. The Philly News was quite taken aback at the prospect of Weldon investigating corruption.

    Defense Solutions has been hired by the chairman of the Bashundhara Group, Ahmed Akbar Sobhan who fled BD for London after being accused of corrupt business parctices. The latest charge accuses Sobhan of bribing a BD politician to quash a muder investigation in which his son is the prime suspect. The murder victim was another director on the Bashundhara Group board.

    Sounds like something up Weldon’s alley, doesn’t it?

    Weldon, btw, visited Bangladesh in March as a representative of the Global Alliance for Homeland Security which is being run out of an apartment in Woodside, Queens, NY by one golam mehraj who appears to have no visible means of support.

    Oh, and just in case you were wondering, Defense Solutions has no experience whatsoever investigating corruption. It primarily lobbies the DoD on behalf of defense contractors and is an international arms dealer.

  • CB, you missed my favorite, “The internet as we know it was created by entrepreneurs free from government interference”.

    This is my second choice:

    Here goes: Socialized medicine can take the form of government taking your money and then spending it on insurance. Socialized medicine can take the form of a requirement from government for you to spend money on health insurance. Either way, it is the government making the decision about your money, no matter whether you call it Medicare, Medicaid, or an individual mandate. The Romney plan fits in this format.

    Which means we have socialized driving in this country.

    Armey has totally ignored his commentors and only replies to Joe Klein. Joe asked him, “If you’re so concerned about government spending, why did you abet the Bush administration’s lifting of the pay-as-you-go rules for the federal budget in 2001?”. Armey responded by linking to two of his articles, both of which talked about decisions that were made in Congress as if he was an impartial observer instead of the fifth most powerful member.

  • Apparently, it’ll soon be someone else’s job to make Plan A work.

    No, it’ll be someone else’s job to make Plan C work, Plan C being to rough up Iran. Why else appoint the Navy’s chief officer? [Plan C = Plan Sea, see.]

  • I still think Armey is useful as a tool to hammer the Republicans with whenever he says something useful. The average wingnut can’t think past their authoritarian lizard brain, and that part of them remembers loving Armey, so when Dick says Bush is a fuckup, it makes their brains hurt (both teaspoons of it). If enough wingnut-approved bobbleheads say that the Republican leadership sucks, their heads will explode.

    So Armey is a Dick, but anything that makes a wingnut’s brain hurt can’t be all bad.

  • steve, where do you find insightful conservative blogging? i’d really like to know (i.e., this isn’t a snarky question).

    I read dozens of far-right blogs for my gig at Salon, but there are a handful of conservatives who I actually find interesting. James Joyner at Outside the Beltway is very good, as is Ed Morrissey at Captain\’s Quarters. Andrew Sullivan and John Cole at Balloon Juice aren\’t considered particularly conservative anymore, but I always enjoy their work. And for campaign coverage, Real Clear Politics does very good work.

    Of course, I rarely agree with insightful conservative blogging, but it exists.

  • The sad part is, Armey was recruited to balance out the liberal tendencies of Joe Klien.

    Point, counter-point, MSM style.

  • Hindsight’s 20/20, CB
    Cut yourself a slice of slack.
    We SHOULD expect better from Armey.

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