Insincerity?

Jonathan Alter (above)condemns the supposedly insincere criticism of the Swift Boat veterans by George Bush, but will undoubtedly forgive the Democratic party for the deplorable behavior of leftist protestors at the Republican Convention this week.

The New York Times is careful not to call the Democratic protestors, just "anti-Republican."

Even though most protests are aimed squarely at the Bush administration, there is little evidence that Democratic Party officials are at the helm. Indeed, Democratic leaders have been worrying that angry images of demonstrators shouting, clashing with the police or damaging property will be used to tar their party, as historians say occurred after the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, when violent antiwar protests were seen as hurting the party's cause. As a result, party officials say, a focus of the spin operation they set up last week about 10 blocks from the convention site at Madison Square Garden will be to counter Republican efforts to link them to protest mishaps or violence.

"We have no connection to any of the protesters," the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terry McAuliffe, said on Thursday in announcing the party's war room. "I have implored everyone to make sure that the Republicans have a peaceful convention."


But, the fact is that all these wierdos are the energetic core of the party, something that the Clinton Administration fully understood when he let them have their own way when he was president.