Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
George Will, one of the few conservatives I think actually has a brain and a shred of intellectual honesty (though not always indulged), has an op-ed in the Washington Post that is nothing more than a big ol' kiss blown to, of all people, Michelle Bachmann. The op-ed is almost entirely substanceless. He says she's become a "burr under Democrats' saddles" and he mentions one example of something she actually got right.
Left entirely undiscussed is the long list of batshit crazy or downright idiotic things she says on an almost daily basis. This thing could have been written by one of her aides. Hell, maybe it was. It would scarcely be possible to distinguish between what he's written and what one of her aides would have written.
Politics
Comments
I think George Will must be very happy to have colleagues like Hannity, Limbaugh, Scarborough, Savage, Coulter, Ingram, et al, swelling the ranks of "journalists" in the media. They make him look smart and honest, by comparison.
Posted by: democommie | October 28, 2009 9:22 AM
Considering that Mr. Will has been allowed to post three articles in the Washington Post on the subject of global warming which have been discredited as nothing but a tissue of lies, and to which discrediting he has not troubled to respond, it would seem that creeping senility is affecting his thinking processes, such as they are.
Posted by: SLC | October 28, 2009 9:31 AM
My local paper cut back on the op-ed page, chopping out most of the letters they used to publish.
They kept George Will and two other cons, balanced by of all persons EJ Dionne. (i.e. unbalanced by)
I cancelled my subscription. I dislike the pompous prevaricating prescriptions he advances.
Posted by: Kevin(NYC) | October 28, 2009 9:44 AM
Given the Washington Post's recent record for honesty, I've boycotted them with the exception of an occasional review of Ezra Klein's analyses of the health care debate. I had an exchange first with their ombudsman who made it clear he lacked the spine to even adequately frame the issue, let alone argue for honesty on his readers' behalf. Since then as Andrew Sullivan has amply revealed, the WaPo is becoming increasingly worse at meeting basic journalistic standards and honesty.
Mr. Will uses the same type of arguments used by all social conservatives and many other conservatives I've encountered when referring to both Sarah Palin and Rep. Bachmann, they avoid confronting and responding to non-conservatives' best and most cogent arguments against these two politicians (I don't know if Mr. Will has done the same with Ms. Palin - this is a general observation). Bill O'Reilly is a particular master of avoiding good arguments in order to defend his easily falsified arguments; "easy" if he was in a fair forum - which he like most social conservatives mostly avoid.
Posted by: Michael Heath | October 28, 2009 9:48 AM
Michael Heath:
Although I do not watch Tweety Matthews, someone brought this to my attention:
http://www.youtube.com/watchv=up8eaajwDRI&feature=player_embedded.
For sheer entertainment value, the first minute and a half or so is gold.
Posted by: democommie | October 28, 2009 10:03 AM
Re democommie
Posted link yields a 404 error.
Posted by: SLC | October 28, 2009 10:09 AM
Well, I've tried twice to go to that link, it's inoperative. The video it's SUPPOSED to open is the one where Matthews skewers Michael Long, chairman of the NY Conservative (read batshit crazy AND mean) Party.
Posted by: democommie | October 28, 2009 10:09 AM
George Will USED to be a fairly honest moderate-conservative -- back in the '80s when common sense could be more easily used to discredit liberal policies and rhetoric, and when the Republicans actually gave a shit about serving their country using common sense solutions. Since then, my respect for him has evaporated.
Part of his problem is that intellect is no longer valued by his fellow "conservatives;" and he's felt pressure to dumb himself down to keep his audience. He's trying to be the next William Buckley, and he has to compete with the wingnuts democommie already named just to pretend to be relevant.
Another part of his problem is that -- much like Ratzinger -- he's still deeply traumatized by the radical leftist movements of the '60s, still has night-terrors about Susan Sontag and the like, and is still desperately flogging his tired refrain that they all wanted to destroy America just because they were rich, bored college brats. As a result, he's blinded himself to the recent excesses and insanity of the radicals of his own side; and can't say anything that could possibly be construed as an admission that those evil America-hating liberals were ever right about anything.
Also, a lot of radical right-wingers go to great lengths to dress up their beliefs in the mantle of good old-fashioned reason and good sense, just like those ancient Greek philosophers and the Founding Fathers. And a lot of real intellectuals like Will, stretched to the breaking point between reason and the prevailing radicalism of their own party, drink the kool-aid just to reassure themselves they're not betraying either.
Posted by: Raging Bee | October 28, 2009 10:19 AM
...he mentions one example of something she actually got right.
Well there you go. That's actually a pretty big scoop right there. Hold the presses!! Another score for George Will, gumshoe reporter.
Posted by: 386sx | October 28, 2009 11:21 AM
@democommie: Your URL is missing a "?", which is very important.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up8eaajwDRI
Posted by: pough | October 28, 2009 11:23 AM
This is an entirely typical Will op-ed when discussing personalities. He has written the same sort of pablum about dozens of "heartland" politicians over the years, including a few democrats (Bill Bradley, Sam Nunn, et al). The only common thread appears to be that the subjects are strikingly similar to Will: Suburban, white, well-to-do, with lots of time for thinking. The only difference here is that Bachmann has plenty of time for thinking, but defers.
Otherwise, what RB said.
Posted by: kehrsam | October 28, 2009 11:28 AM
When Michelle Bachmann said that I (along with all other people who don't agree with her) weren't "real Americans" I knew I was done with this bitch.
Posted by: DuggleBogey | October 28, 2009 11:34 AM
I was done reading Will many years ago, when he used SAT scores to argue that per pupil funding had a negative effect on student outcomes. He argued that SAT scores for North Dakota, which spends roughly half as much per pupil as New York, had significantly higher SAT scores.
I don't have that article with me, so I'll use more recent numbers from 2004-5. North Dakota SAT composite = 1195. New York SAT composite = 1008.
What he neglected to mention, was percentage of HS graduates taking the test: New York = 92%, North Dakota = 4% (presumably drawn, in both cases, from near the top of the HS achievement distribution).
I doubt that was a case of Will being Hannity stupid, so I work under the assumption that he's just a lying sack of crap.
Posted by: Mr. Upright | October 28, 2009 11:45 AM
Mr. Upright: In that case, I think Will was trying to score conservative-anti-school-funding points by taking one data snapshot that looked good for his cause, and using it to get all intellectual and common-sense-y about a subject he really didn't understand. Education funding and teachers' unions are another bugaboo of Will's, and of conservatives in general (partly due to fear of alien ideas, partly to hatred of uppity liberals forming unions, and partly to leftover resentment over that desegregation dustup in 1954).
Posted by: Raging Bee | October 28, 2009 12:01 PM
I'm not too fretful about this statement by Will.
After all, a serious nerdlinger like him thinks he understands baseball too which is amusing because I can't see Will ever breaking a sweat by playing on an actual diamond.
Posted by: CHV | October 28, 2009 12:03 PM
CHV:
Will and baseball, oy. I used to glance at his sludge when I read the OpEd page of the Boston Globe (NYTLite). His expertise on most things are not impressive to me. I see Mr. Will as the put upon team "manager" in high school who got pushed around by the jocks.
Posted by: democommie | October 28, 2009 12:14 PM
Mr. Uptight and Raging Bee, I'm sure Will was doing both those things. However, I also think that his very strong east coast bias was showing. Out here in the East *everyone* takes the SATs. I had never even heard of the ACT until we moved Kentucky. It probably didn't even occur to Will that the entire country does not hold the SATs in such reverance.
Posted by: katydid13 | October 28, 2009 12:30 PM
Demo @ 16:
In his youth, George Will would have been a waterboy by default for receiving hundreds of swirlies from his H.S. varsity baseball team (plus a coach or two) in response for his offering unsolicited advice about the nuances of a proper curveball.
As an adult, Will's a jock sniffer who wishes he had the physical acumen to throw a ball more than 7.4 feet. He reminds me of Pee Wee Herman's Ivy League-educated cousin.
Posted by: CHV | October 28, 2009 12:48 PM
I remember watching Will on some talking heads show years ago proclaiming that "Field of Dreams" was a terrible movie because "that's not what baseball is like - it's a real man's game". I said to myself 'he thinks "Field of Dreams" is about baseball'?
Posted by: Taz | October 28, 2009 1:02 PM
I said to myself 'he thinks "Field of Dreams" is about baseball'?
I said to myself 'he thinks he can lecture the rest of us about real men's games?'
Posted by: Raging Bee | October 28, 2009 1:06 PM
I should point out that my quote from Will is a paraphrase - I don't remember exactly what he said. But that was the gist of it, and he did title his baseball book "Men at Work - the Craft of Baseball". I agree he's a wimpy little jock-sniffer.
Posted by: Taz | October 28, 2009 1:11 PM
CHV After all, a serious nerdlinger like him thinks he understands baseball too which is amusing because I can't see Will ever breaking a sweat by playing on an actual diamond."
Here's a hint: if you break into a sweat playing baseball, you probably aren't playing baseball.
On-topic: Will's a douche.
Posted by: Modusoperandi | October 28, 2009 1:14 PM
"The CRAFT of Baseball?" Seriously? That's so precious I could puke. Is George Will trying to make baseball twee or something?
Someone (National Lampoon, IIRC, but I'm not sure) wrote a parody of a Will article around 1983, titled "Why I Like the Feudal System." Money quote: "It would not be difficult to return to the simplicity and beauty of the Dark Ages." I liked Will back then, but the satire was spot-on.
Posted by: Raging Bee | October 28, 2009 1:20 PM
The George Will/baseball talk reminded me of this classic: http://www.hulu.com/watch/3519/saturday-night-live-george-f-wills-sports-machine (sorry if you can't get Hulu).
Posted by: Mr. Upright | October 28, 2009 1:44 PM
I thought Will knew a little bit about baseball.
Then I learned a little myself, and found out how full of it he was. Same thing with a lot of the other things he expounds about: he SOUNDS reasonable, but it falls completely apart once you learn a little bit about things.
Posted by: gwangung | October 28, 2009 1:51 PM
gwangung:
It is indeed unfortunate that Mr. Will probably DOES know more about baseball than he does about foreign policy, con law, economics, race relations, etc.,.
Posted by: democommie | October 28, 2009 2:05 PM
Heath: you said (#4) you were boycotting WaPo. Can you recommend a more honest mainstream newspaper to replace it?
Posted by: Raging Bee | October 28, 2009 4:33 PM
Modus @ 22:
Ever play ball on a typical summer day? Good luck trying to avoid sweating.
Upright @ 24:
Thanks for that SNL link. I was thinking of that same sketch earlier, but never thought I could find it online. Whomever wrote it nailed Will's nerdiness perfectly. I love how it ends with Mike Schmidt and LaSorda chasing Will down and beating the crap out of him.
Posted by: CHV | October 28, 2009 5:02 PM
Raging Bee asked me:
I only relied on the WaPo for national politics. I now find myself looking more towards the NYTs which I was already reading, but have also occasionally added The Hill and Ed's sister publication, the Washington Independent. I've had a number of people who email me link to stories from Politico, but again, given the outrageous falsehoods by at least one of their opinion writers, I've not perused that site.
In terms of honesty, I still find the NYTs to be honest, along with The Hill, and the Washington Independent though the last site self-identifies as liberal.
Posted by: Michael Heath | October 28, 2009 5:20 PM
CHV "Ever play ball on a typical summer day? Good luck trying to avoid sweating."
Oh! So the "sweating" is incidental to "baseball". It's more like just being outside on a hot day, in uniform.
Posted by: Modusoperandi | October 28, 2009 5:54 PM
You talk of Will's "intellectual honesty". Don't forget he was part of a team that used a leaked document from the Carter team to prepare Ronald Reagan for debates with Carter, then spoke out about what a great debater Reagan was.
Posted by: Eric Grosshans | October 28, 2009 7:32 PM
Michelle Bachmann got something RIGHT?
Posted by: Shay | October 28, 2009 9:35 PM
Shay @ 32:
Well . . ., I know don't know about that, however she just got played. Conservative David Frum, who is trying to either distinguish himself or save the conservative movement and the Republican party from its zanier, extreme, or more idiotic elements notes that Brains Matter in linking to Byron York's piece about how Barney Frank took advantage of Rep. Bachmann's incompetence.
Posted by: Michael Heath | October 28, 2009 10:52 PM
Michael@33:
Michelle Bachman, Congress' answer to Orly Taitz.
Posted by: Shay | October 30, 2009 12:02 AM