Blogger Duncan "Atrios" Black prints a hilarious letter from Rep. John Conyers to the Washington Post, complaining about Dana Milbank's treatment of Conyers's make-believe impeachment hearing. The best bit:
In a typically derisive and uninformed passage, Milbank makes much of other lawmakers calling me "Mr. Chairman" and says I liked it so much that I used "chairmanly phrases." Milbank may not know that I was the Chairman of the House Government Operations Committee from 1988 to 1994. By protocol and tradition in the House, once you have been a Chairman you are always referred to as such. Thus, there was nothing unusual about my being referred to as Mr. Chairman.
Sometimes the best way to respond when your dignity is affronted is simply to keep silent. Here Conyers succeeds only in diminishing his dignity further. On a more substantive note, Conyers distances himself from anti-Semitic comments one of his "witnesses" made:
I do not agree with, support, or condone any comments asserting Israeli control over U.S. policy, and I find any allegation that Israel is trying to dominate the world or had anything to do with the September 11 tragedy disgusting and offensive.
The Associated Press reports that Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean issued a statement disavowing anti-Semitic literature Democratic activists had been distributing in conjunction with the hearing. Well, it's reassuring to know that something is beyond the pale even for Howard Dean.
But Conyers can't get off so easy. After all, he invited Ray McGovern, the "witness" whose statements Conyers claims he doesn't "condone," to "testify" at his "hearing." As blogger Richard Baehr notes, "McGovern's views are well known (that is why he was invited by Conyers, presumably), and the activists were handing out their anti-Semitic literature openly to everyone in sight in the DNC office." |
