Tim Russert interviewed former New York Governor Mario Cuomo last night. Cuomo, who's hawking a book on Lincoln, said a lot of stupid shit, but the following remarks, which I have fisked for your enjoyment, struck me as particularly insipid (italics mine):
So, yes, Lincoln took liberties he shouldn't have, the way President Bush is trying to take liberties now that he shouldn't have.
Liberals lie because the truth is too burdensome. They would like us to believe that there has been rampant censorship, mass arrests, and a huge surge in spying upon the American people. But all that's garbage. There's obviously no censorship in a time where a filthy liar like Michael Moore (whom Cuomo is shilling for) can release a two-hour propaganda film insinuating that the President is working in collusion with our enemies to enrich themselves and overthrow democracy.
Nor have there been mass arrests of innocent Americans ---just the arrests of people who are suspected of actual collusion with Muslim terrorist organizations, such as al-Qaeda. Is the civil rights crowd so far gone that they can't even see the wisdom in detaining terrorist sympathizers? Ask real Americans, who realize that we are in a war, whether they care that some Muslim troublemaker is being held without access to counsel.
And as for the G spying on us, I think it's safe to say that, if we are suspected of some sort of wrongdoing, that's something they've been able to do for quite a while. The saving grace? The vast majority of us aren't suspected of anything wrong. You think the FBI gives a rat's ass about Aunt Gladys' phone conversations with her neighbors? Get real. And slippery slope this.
And that's what the Supreme Court just about told him ---uh, I'm shocked that a Supreme Court that handed him the election, heh, you know, retreated sufficiently back toward objectivity that they were able to give, to give him a slap on the wrist.
It always comes back to the 2000 Election, doesn't it? The casually observed, fully ingested belief that the President is illegitimately the President. Cuomo is just as irresponsible as any other McAuliffite tapeworm in the Democratic Party with respect to this. As I say, liberals lie because they can't deal with the truth, which is that George W. Bush won every recount in the State of Florida and, therefore, all of that state's electoral votes. It was only because of the machinations of the DNC and the Florida Supreme Court that the nonsense of counting undervotes by constantly changing standards was ever entertained. But the trauma has been too great. They cannot believe they lost to the Cowboy from Crawford.
As for the Supreme Court's recent decisions granting more rights to these terrorists and terrorist sympathizers, it is not a "slap on the wrist," Mario. It will become a huge liability and hindrance to our efforts to successfully prosecute this war. And it would prove to be so even if your man gets in.
But I think Lincoln was wrong. I think Roosevelt was wrong, and I think it's a mistake to give them a pass because of the wartime excuse.
The old "wartime excuse" ploy, eh? Why would a President undergo the political risks and costs of making any abrogations of even a few people's rights if it weren't for the exigencies of war? What a lame-ass.
But I think Lincoln had a better excuse than Bush does because, while terrorism is a big problem, it is not a threat to this nation's survival. It's a threat, but it is not a threat to our survival. Lincoln was, was dealing with the threat to survival.
This is irresponsible as hell. It sounds a whole lot like the traitor Michael Moore's opinion that the deaths of the 3,000 victims in the atrocities of 11 September 2001 were not all that statistically significant in a nation of 280 million. After all, we only saw the World Trade Center disintegrate into rubble and the Pentagon erupt in flames. We only saw our entire nation's airspace close down for a couple of days. No effect at all on travel or tourism or America's economic and national confidence in general.
Cuomo, you are a joke. An overrated, liberal joke. I hope you remember your statement when we are next attacked on our own soil, you equivoacting turd. Can you imagine how much worse it would be if the Islamofascists have a nuke or some anthrax or sarin gas to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans?
So, I think they're both wrong, uh, I think Lincoln is less wrong.
I think it's a real blessing that your brand of pie-eyed, Leftist crapola never got past New York and my TV, you wretched sop.