Decision ‘08

Under The Spell Of Her Own Self-Righteousness

With the hat tip to the great Mickey Kaus, here’s an incredibly pompous explanation by Jean Rohe of her anti-McCain shenanigans at the New School commencement, with an even more overblown followup - and the spot-on parody by Greg Gutfeld…

UPDATE 10:11 a.m.: Bonus points for this passage from the Gutfeld parody:

…[L]et’s face it: I was pretty fearless. I mean, it takes a lot of courage to criticize a Republican conservative right in front of an audience of Democrats, academics, liberals, and radical vegans. I call that “speaking truth to power!”

UPDATE 2: 10:27 a.m.: Our good friend Fargus points us to the response by McCain aide Mark Salter. Had he wrote every paragraph but the last one, it would have been a well said, blistering reply to a student too full of herself - but I’ll admit the last paragraph went a bit too far:

Should you grow up and ever get down to the hard business of making a living and finding a purpose for your lives beyond self-indulgence some of you might then know a happiness far more sublime than the fleeting pleasure of living in an echo chamber. And if you are that fortunate, you might look back on the day of your graduation and your discourtesy to a good and honest man with a little shame and the certain knowledge that it very unlikely any of you will ever posses[sic] the one small fraction of the character of John McCain.

Oops…should have thought that last bit over. Not a good idea to post when you’re angry, as I’ve had occasion to find out myself…

11 Responses to “Under The Spell Of Her Own Self-Righteousness”

1 Fargus Says:
May 23rd, 2006 at 9:18 am
Mark, let’s be fair here. Did you read Salter’s incredibly condescending, insulting response to her? Are you just ignoring it? That appears to be no way for a staffer of a US Presidential candidate to conduct himself, in an official capacity.
2 Mark Says:
May 23rd, 2006 at 9:24 am
No, I haven’t…but I noticed the link on Kaus’s page - I’ll read it…
3 Mark Says:
May 23rd, 2006 at 9:34 am
Fargus, I updated the post - I agree, Salter went over the top in the last paragraph…
4 mikebdot Says:
May 23rd, 2006 at 10:23 am
I think it’s clear, you know, her speaking Truth to Power®…

Actually, her “explanation” was more of a story of how she came about deciding to speak out and then a few paragraphs of fluff. There is nothing much of substance there. Nor was there in her speech. What is the big deal? Her main point is that you should speak out when you get a chance. So what?
5 Dennis Says:
May 23rd, 2006 at 11:09 am
My problem is she wasn’t “speaking out,” she was engaging in a bit self-righteous self-indulgence before a friendly crowd. She wasn’t seeking to change minds by speaking out, but simply cement her place in front of people who already agreed with her. She’s free to do so, but when she’s speaking in a forum where he target is constrained by good manners from responding in kind, I think it’s obnoxious, not praiseworthy.

It’s pretty clear from reading her essay that she seemed to get off on the whole “I’m a rebel for truth” nonsense, even including details such saving her speech in a file marked “mccain speech subversive.doc.” It’s just ego run amock. It’s more boring than brave.

Now it would have been interesting to see how it would have played out if McCain fired back the way that aide did.
6 Evan Says:
May 23rd, 2006 at 11:15 am
Pompous and full of herself is right. It’s too bad Salter wasn’t able to control his own tongue, though if I can’t guarantee I would do better in his shoes. I’m reminded of an old proverb he would have done well to heed “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.”

A delicate balance, response is…
7 Fargus Says:
May 23rd, 2006 at 11:58 am
You might think she’s being self-righteous, and that’s your right. Whatever. But as for her point that she wouldn’t feel right about herself if given the chance to speak her mind directly to McCain, in person, I completely agree. And I’d encourage that on both sides of the spectrum. It happened at a John Kerry rally I attended in Bethlehem, PA, that an unfriendly man stood up in the crowd and started criticizing, and I don’t begrudge him that at all, though I don’t agree with him at all, and though I think his assessment of his own performance would likely have been quite inflated.

The main point, really, is that she had some principles, she feels strongly that McCain stands against those principles, and she took the chance to speak her mind directly to him. I can’t fault that.
8 mikebdot Says:
May 23rd, 2006 at 12:18 pm
The rude pundit has a post up today about this. As always, very rude indeed.
9 topsecretk9 Says:
May 23rd, 2006 at 3:30 pm
I have no problem with the last paragraph.
10 dmac Says:
May 23rd, 2006 at 4:30 pm
She also followed an extremely unkind speaker who veered wildly off course from his prepared remarks, and attacked McCain as well. That didn’t take much courage, either.

Not to mention the “students” in the audience who called their own university’s president many nasty names as well - do these idiots even know who Bob Kerry is, and what he’s done for his country?
11 fatman Says:
May 23rd, 2006 at 4:50 pm
I don’t have a problem with the last paragraph either. She chose to attack McCain (whom I abhor) when he could not or would not reply in kind, then, in her reply to Salter, fancied herself a “Truth Warrior” (my phrase) and spoke of her “compassion” for everything McCain went through as a POW. That last I simply do not believe. IMHO, the thought of what McCain went through never crossed her mind. She was too busy calculating how much free ink and face time the MSM would grant her for her “courageous stand”.

And just because I’m curious, given her feelings on the subject, how could she possibly give the commencement speech at (or even attend) a school presided over by what some of her compatriots called a “war criminal”?