Wednesday September 03, 2003

RETURN OF THE NAIVE. Andrew Sullivan is aghast that people are calling his President a liar. "...when you start using the term "liar" promiscuously in public discourse, you make such discourse increasingly impossible," says Sullivan. "The term should be reserved only for a conscious and deliberate statement that you know is untrue as you speak or write it. It's rarer than you might think."

Isn't this a bit rich coming from a guy who grew his little bit of fame by publicly denouncing many of his fellow citizens as traitors? How carefully did Sullivan think about the prudence of his claims before he smeared them all over the Blue States?

But I should ease back on him. During that long month in which he cooled his clay feet in P-town, I had forgotten the relevant thing about Sullivan: trying to hook his thoughts one to another, or follow his train of thought past the first station, is like trying to reconstruct a shattered mummy. Best just to wave the vile dust away from one's nostrils.