Posted 2:38 PM by Robert

Continuing Patty Murray Whitewash

Best of the Web continues the chronicle of the ongoing liberal media whitewash of Patty Murray's witless paeans to Osama bin Laden:

The Newark Star-Ledger weighs in with an astonishingly lame defense of Washington state's Sen. Patty Murray, whom the paper styles "a patriot in the proudest tradition" for her recent comments about Osama bin Laden's purported humanitarian works. The Star-Ledger pats Patty on the back for having "the integrity to tell uncomfortable truths." But at the same time, the paper acknowledges that Murray wasn't telling the truth: "Murray was wrong to suggest that Osama bin Laden's appeal is based on decades of charity work. ... In the division of terrorist labor, bin Laden provides more muscle than munificence."

...

Murray's remarks, incidentally, probably reflect stupidity more than a genuine animus toward America. In the Washingtonian magazine's annual survey of Capitol Hill staffers, conducted several months ago, Murray placed first among senators in the "No Rocket Scientist" category ...

Ah! The invaluable stupidity defense. Yes, it saves Senator Murray from being cast as unpatriotic.

But does a senator easily persuade voters who would otherwise turn her out of office that she made such remarks because she is stupid? Or does she just count on the voters to know that she is stupid - and love her for it?

And note the tension here: As with so many in the liberal media, this editorial writer knows that he or she basically agrees with Senator Murray - even though the editorial acknowledges that what Senator Murray said was wrong. As noted in an earlier post about a different liberal media editorial:

The agreement is with her larger premises and with her willingness to distort whatever facts it takes and can be gotten away with to support and advance those premises. They agree with her "deeper" belief that it was a failure on the part of the United States .... that should be the focus of our concern, that the military should not be a component of the measures taken to address terrorism, and, most importantly, that there is some low budget magical thinking that will allow the United States to have all the Pell Grants and other federally paid public programs it wants - while simultaneously inducing the the world's terrorists to love us on the cheap.