Dennis Byrne (wingnut pundit) assaults fictional Gore presidency

[Martin Eden]

Dennis Byrne is a Chicago-area writer whose commentaries often appear in the Monday Chicago Tribune (along with Charles Krauthammer). The two of them comprise a rightwing Frick and Frack that provide one more reason to hate Mondays. I rarely read them, but couldn't resist the title of Byrne's commentary this morning:

Scary thought: Al Gore could be in charge

Dennis Byrne, a Chicago-area writer and consultant
Published June 4, 2007

If Al Gore had been president ...

President Al Gore today asked the United Nations Security Council to pass a resolution of "concern" over the nuclear arms race between Iran and Iraq. "Both countries are perilously close to possessing nuclear weapons," Gore said at a White House press conference. "Nuclear warfare between these two historic enemies would be a tragedy for everyone."

President Gore requested the resolution after the countries' two dictators, Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, renewed threats of annihilation against each other over disputed Persian Gulf territory. Two decades ago, the two nations fought a prolonged war involving the use of chemical weapons over dominance of the strategically important gulf region, and both nations years ago dropped any pretense that their nuclear programs had peaceful purposes.

Gore said former President Jimmy Carter, who now is Gore's UN ambassador, would present new, softer language than what's contained in the 14 previously rejected resolutions proposed by the United States. Gore indicated that the resolution would drop a U.S. request for a multinational summit of Middle East nations and instead seek mediation by the International Anger Management Institute.

Former Sen. Fred Thompson, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, said in response, "Great, just what we need, another futile request for a feeble declaration from an international body incapable of agreeing on the time of day. Ever since 9/11, the Gore administration's toothless foreign policy has led to more attacks by Islamic terrorists, killing thousands more Americans on our own soil and worsening the sectarian violence in the Middle East.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-oped0604byrnejun04,0,7272382.story?coll=chi-newsopinioncommentary-hed">Read the rest of this BS if you can stomach it

The reason I'm posting this crap is because I felt compelled to fire off an LTTE (below):

The real world apparently does not provide enough ammunition for Dennis Byrne to use against Al Gore, so he has written a rightwing fantasy account of what (in the mind of Dennis Byrne) would have happened during the last 6 years if the Supreme Court had selected Al Gore instead of GW Bush after the 2000 presidential election.

It is perfectly understandable why Dennis Byrne would rather not write about the real-world disasters of the Bush presidency, which are worse than the fictional scenario he attributes to Mr. Gore. What is not so understandable is why the Tribune would publish such tripe. By all means, let's have well-written logical commentaries from both the left and the right that advance the national debate. Unfortunately, Mr. Byrne's piece is just another assault on reason.

[Maat]

1. Good LTTE!

I especially like the last line.;-)

[reichstag911]

2. And mine:

Dear Sirs:

My succinct headline reply to that over Mr. Byrne's musings would be: "Scarier thought: Dick "Geppetto" Cheney and Chimpy McSimpleton are in charge." I never cease to be amazed by the wit and wisdom (and crystal ball-reading acuity) of those on the right who choose to hypothesize about how horrible things could have been if GW Bush had not suspiciously emerged victorious in both 2000 and 2004.

Let us take merely two of the seemingly endless list of policy failures of this criminal administration, without even opening the can of worms that would be the discussion of its high crimes and misdemeanors. First, given the high priority given to antiterrorism measures under the Clinton administration, and the explicit warnings on terrorist threats from National Security Advisor Sandy Berger to his incoming replacement Condoleezza Rice -- to say nothing of the August 6 Presidential Daily Brief titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US" -- it stretches credulity to posit the argument that President Gore would have continued his vacation and done nothing to stop the worst attack ever on American soil.

Second, could our relations with the rest of the world be worse than they are under the current administration? After the outpouring of shared grief from the rest of the world after the events of 9/11, the US is now almost universally reviled as the greatest current threat to world peace, and the animosity created by Bush's disastrous war will haunt us for years, even decades, to come. As we are the only superpower left, that animosity will certainly come in the form of terrorist acts, which are after all the only option available to a militarily inferior but committed group.

Perhaps if Mr. Byrne's psychic talent had been equally attuned prior to the last two presidential "elections," he could have warned America what was going to happen under Bush, and we could have chosen whether to follow the path to national disgrace on which we find ourselves. Perhaps even the Bushbots like Byrne would have opted for the road less taken.

Best

[Martin Eden]

4. Way to Burn Byrne!

Reading him and that other wingnut asshole Krauthammer is enough to put me off my breakfast on Monday mornings.

[MasonJar]

3. Love you LTTE, especially the last three words.