Politics of deceit

Brent Bozell:

George McGovern, Patrick Moynihan, Ed Muskie -- where are you when we need you?
I never thought myself capable of writing those words. I cut my political teeth at the time these men were at the zenith of their careers. In the eyes of conservatives, they were the Enemy: liberal Democrats responsible for the economic, social and foreign policy debacles that gave rise to the Reagan Revolution. How we conservatives cheered when their agenda was obliterated on Election Day 1980. How this conservative wishes they were around today.
No, I haven't changed my stripes, but I have learned to appreciate that while the McGovernites of yesteryear were fundamentally wrong, terribly wrong, in their public policy agendas, they were driven by principle and fueled by conviction, and precisely for that reason they would be absolutely shocked -- no, disgusted -- by what has become of their Democrat Party today.
In his brilliant new book, "Bankrupt," bestselling author David Limbaugh delivers 370 pages, and hundreds of examples, documenting the degree to which the leftist leadership of the Democratic Party has lost its collective soul.
Mr. Limbaugh is a lawyer by trade, and like a good attorney patiently and systematically builds his case, issue by issue, with the evidence meticulously documented. When the book is finished, the verdict has been rendered, and it's an inescapable judgment: Today's Democratic Party leaders will say and do anything, to gain power.
But it's worse than that, really. It is not that today's liberals are advancing flawed ideas or making accusations that are fundamentally untrue. It is that they are deliberately, and regularly, savaging their opposition with scurrilous personal attacks based on information they know to be false, with their allies in the national media obediently broadcasting this message to the general public while their far-left shock troops at groups like MoveOn.org use them to mobilize the grass-roots. Today's liberals are radicals, and many of them are simply dishonest, angry and mean-spirited. It is a sobering, even frightening read.
Mr. Limbaugh starts with the (misnamed) war on terror and demonstrates how this leftist strategy has succeeded in turning American public opinion against President Bush. It has relied not on a serious debate over geopolitical issues but on a barrage of outrageous accusations, each one personal and vicious.
Mr. Limbaugh analyzes the charge that Mr. Bush "lied" about WMDs in order to get us into a war with Iraq, an accusation that indicts him with the personal responsibility for the deaths of thousands of American military and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians. He produces public statements from an army of liberal leaders, including Sens. Dick Durbin, Harry Reid, John Kerry and Ted Kennedy, along with former Vice President Al Gore, making this charge.
Mr. Limbaugh then produces public statements from liberal Democrats proclaiming their confidence in the existence of WMDs before the run-up to the war, fully in agreement with Mr. Bush. They include virtually the entire leadership of the Democratic Party, including Mr. Kerry ("The threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real") and Mr. Kennedy ("We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction"). The hypocrisy is stunning.
...

While Democrats are good at hypocracy, this is just dishonesty on a grand scale. There is more on this review of David Limbaugh's book. It is a chance to see how this truly dishonest party really works. The modern Democrat party can never proclaim a mandate, because they have to be so dishonest to get elected.