How I Became a Right Wing Talking Point

Ms. Lafsky…the mistake you made was in thinking that any nuanced point would be picked up and understood by the blunderbusses of the right wing bludgeon machine. To a man/woman, they are not interested in rational intelligent discourse. Not if a bumpersticker type sound bite can serve the purpose of obscuring the facts and inflaming the passions of their lunatic base. That base then turns to hate filled ad hominem attacks even to the point of very real threats to your safety. FOX NONSENSE CHANNEL’s male anchors offer a mix of misogynous comments while the female talking heads flaunt their sexual proclivities and laugh at these inappropriate sexually explicit comments. It’s great titillating entertainment which plays to the baser instincts of their viewership. Limbaugh is a bloviating egomaniacal comedian whose drug induced stupor prevents his one remaining brain cell from processing any information. Nothing that comes out of his mouth is rational.
In light of Senator Kennedy’s redemption and stellar career, it was a question worth pondering. There isn’t a thoughtful human being who hasn’t wondered about the effect and worth of his own life in relation to how it affects other people or events. Sad, unfortunate and premature her death may have been, it may have been GOD’s will that her life and death served a higher purpose. It’s a point woth debating.

The piece you wrote on the HuffPo was idiotic and all that whiny drivel above doesn’t change that. Ted Kennedy drove off a bridge in a drunken stupor and then allowed Mary Jo to drown so he could save his political career. I think she would be outraged at Kennedy for cutting her life short, causing her family so much pain, and then getting away with it. To suggest that she might think it was all worth it so Teddy could live on to become the “Lion of The Senate” is pretty damn sick. You weren’t making a “slightly nuanced” point, you were making a dumbass point.

That said, you had every right to make a foolish point. Just don’t whine about being the victim of attacks and give phony excuses about “nuance” for what you wrote. You wouldn’t blog if you weren’t looking for a reaction. Being on the receiving end of intense vitriol from the opposition is the best part of blogging — it means you’re making an impact. When I don’t have death threats in my email box (especially from radical Muslims) it means I need to step up my game.

This article is hilarious. The author whines about how she was somehow misunderstood, unable to get a “rational debate” about an irrational statement, then makes the exact same “nuanced” suggestion that Mary Jo would think her death is maybe, just perhaps, possibly, worth all the “achievement because after all, she was a “staunch Democrat”. Did Mary Jo know the DNC slogan is, “My Party Before My Life”? Did it ever occur to you that other news organizations didn’t offer you any other forum to explain yourself because it’s unexplainable other than by demented logic? Lady, take this time and go re-examine how on earth you could come up with what you wrote as somehow reasonable and grow up.

Welcome to the bullshit that the right has been receiving from you leftist loons all of my adult life. Deal with it!!

I for one am sorry for the boorish behavior you’ve been treated with. Nobody deserves such treatment, no matter how much they disagree with your opinion. But that is the depths of the swamp that is the internet. Both sides have their troglodytes.

I do think it’s funny that you are now whining about the treatment you are receiving from some of the press for your controversial comment. Putting your statement in the context of your whole piece doesn’t really help your case either.

As has been said, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. (or foundry if that’s to sexist for ya.)

Just so I understand this….everyone (at least on the right) missed your “nuanced” “reflection” meant to be “free from ideological battles of the past”….which consisted of your wholly unideological piece on how Senator Ted Kennedy’s career was SO AWESOME that maybe…your words here…”…she’d feel it was worth it”. THEN, you take another 590 words and you don’t even TRY to point out the nuance to those of us who saw the original piece as vitriolic hate and disregard for human life? I will stipulate all your criticisms of me (a right winger) if and only if you promise to write one more piece detailing the aforementioned ‘nuance’ that sailed clear over my head. I am dying (pun intended) to see this nuance so bad that I am willing to read a third piece from you. Who know, maybe I’ll think it’s worth it.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but would it be rude to point out that it does seem just a bit ridiculous that you stipulate that Ms. Kopechne might have considered even _death_ a worthy price to pay for furthering causes she believed in, but you’re not willing to even endure a few uncivil words?

In my view, it’s really pretty simple, Ms. Lafsky. Would **you** be willing to be left to die by suffocation in a car underwater over the space of several hours by someone who, by escaping the consequences of letting that happen to you, furthered a cause you believed in (and was not the only person on earth who could have furthered that cause)?

Ah, I thought not.

So why is it OK to say about another woman “Who knows — maybe she’d feel it was worth it” [ translation, at least from appearances: *you* think it might have been worth it for *her* to die] ?

You shouldn’t be receiving threatening email, but your comment was completely ludicrous. I think we all say things we might later regret, while thinking aloud. but you can’t whine about people criticizing those ridiculous comments.

Wondering if Mary Jo would consider it worth it that Kennedy left her to drown to save his own ass, and even made jokes about it, was a ridiculous thought. you deserve criticism for that one… (just not hate or viscous mail)

I think you knew, as you typed those words, you would get attention…

Your complaints are ludicrous. Your original editorial was self-serving and inappropriate, and now you complain because you are paying an unsurprising price? Of course people were offended and appalled by your editorial. Only a person with limited insight would have been surprised by the reaction. It is especially difficult to learn that while you believe it’s a worthwhile thought that perhaps Ms. Kopechne would have willingly given up her life in the way she did to further Kennedy’s career and causes, you are clearly unwilling to suffer through only insult and censure for your incredible comments.

I am as puzzled as you are at the hue and cry. Doesn’t everyone think that Mary Jo Kopechne would have been pleased to suffocate in Teddy Kennedy’s car so that his career would have greater meaning? It was, after all, such a small contribution to make to the fourth most stable ornament in Senate history? Silly right wingers.

Threats and harrassment for expressing an opinion are inexcusable. There is too much heat and not enough light in today’s discourse. Sarah Palin would agree.

Personally I find your suggestion illuminating as an examplar of the Democratic/Socialist underlying ethos: the individual lives for the State. She is expendable. Human life is not sacred, but instead a commodity that reasonably can be sacrificed for the greater good without the consent of the victim.

You’re entitled to your opinion, but make mine Ayn Rand.

Moral? Don’t speculate about what a dead person might think about a political proposal from the person responsible for their death (50 years later). It’s just tacky. It sounds like you have learned a lesson, but I’m not sure it’s the right one.

There are just places YOU DON’T GO, and you should not have gone there . . .

Melissa Lafsky,

Pay no attention to those Neanderthal right wing nuts and their insults. All right thinking people understand the magnificent morality of your eminently sensible conclusion. Look at all the liberal legislation Senator Kennedy rammed through Congress and weigh all of it, All Of It, against the life of one intern. Wasn’t that worth the price? In utilitarian morality, you weigh the good of an outcome against its cost. What liberal can say the cost of one young girls life was too much to pay for all that? The ends clearly justifies the means here. Surely, Mary Jo would agree were she alive.

In fact, considering the greatness of Senator Kennedy’s achievements, one can only wonder how much greater he could have been had he suffocated two interns instead of just one. Or six or a dozen or a hundred. Would he not have been greater still, risen to higher heights, reached the moral mountaintop? One can only weep at the opportunities lost by calling it quits at Chappaquiddick. However, we can hope that current Democratic Congressmen can benefit from Kennedy’s example and emulate it by suffocating, drowning, or otherwise exterminating their staffs as neccesary to keep Teddy’s dream alive. Thus don’t let it be forgot that once there was a spot for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot.

Gianrico first says
Gianrico says:
September 9, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Ms. Lafsky…the mistake you made was in thinking that any nuanced point would be picked up and understood by the blunderbusses of the right wing bludgeon machine. To a man/woman, they are not interested in rational intelligent discourse.

Then he goes on a drooling hateful diatribe that lacks rational intelligent discourse.
FOX NONSENSE CHANNEL’s male anchors offer a mix of misogynous comments while the female talking heads flaunt their sexual proclivities and laugh at these inappropriate sexually explicit comments. It’s great titillating entertainment which plays to the baser instincts of their viewership. Limbaugh is a bloviating egomaniacal comedian whose drug induced stupor prevents his one remaining brain cell from processing any information. Nothing that comes out of his mouth is rational

Thats what I love about the leftist Nuts. In one post they can make themself look foolish and Hypocritical

I guess Ms Lafsky would agree that we should have built more slave ships since the end result is African Americans are much better off than their West African Cousins? Is that it?? End result is the basis of measure?

Ted Kennedy died with over 200 Million Dollars, Imagine how many people could have been insured? If I had that much I would have paid for thousands to be insured. Thats the Christian thing to do.

Threats are inappropriate. Everything else you had coming to you.

For you to think that Mary Jo Kopechne might have thought it was worth it, it seems clear that YOU think it was (after all, you didn’t lose anything; if she MIGHT have thought it was worth it, surely you MUST think so). And THAT is what is so outrageous to people: that you, in your smug safety, are willing to sacrifice a woman’s life for political gain — gain that, as another poster has pointed out, could have been achieved by someone else.

You’re entitled to any opinion you want, and are free to voice those opinions. But when such deplorable thoughts are uttered publicly, you have no right to expect others to respect them.

You wrote: “I thought it was an apt time for reflection, free from the ideological battles of the past;”
This is a lie. Your entire op-ed was predicated on the perp being your ideological partner. You would never have written anything like you wrote if the perp was one of those evil right wingers. Of course, the evil right wingers would never permit someone who left a helpless human being to drown while they tried to salvage their political position to rise within their ranks. It has something to do with evil right wingers having values and character.

I guess Melissa Lafsky thinks waterboarding is not torture. Kennedy left this woman, in an air pocket, for nine hours. Sounds like nine hours of waterboarding to me.

Harry1902,

Waterboarding is only wrong when the little people do it.

MJK, being dead, had no options (gratitude, indifference, pissed off) as to what the proper liberal response is to being killed by one of the lions of the liberal movement. But suppose some liberal doesn’t kill his/her victim, instead just rapes or assaults them. What is the proper liberal reaction? We had an interesting case of this in the early 1990’s. A member of Wash Dem Senator Brock Adams staff (could be wrong on her position) accused the senator of drugging and assaulting her. He denied, no proof was found, no charges filled. A year or two later, a local paper revealed that the staff of the senator knew of Brock’s “problem” and had advised female staffers to be careful. So the staff of the senator let an innocent victim twist in the wind to protect an effective liberal. Tell us Ms Lafsky, what is the proper liberal response to being raped by a powerful liberal politician? What would you do?

Ted Kennedy died? Seriously though, It did come off sounding a little odd. The injustice she received was the ultimate injustice and I think I can answer for her. No, it wasn’t worth it.
Rule#1: don’t talk about fight club. Rule#2: don’t agree with lunatic righties…..D’oh!
Ok, I just won’t mention fight club. D’oh!

>>So the staff of the senator let an innocent victim twist in the wind
>>to protect an effective liberal. Tell us Ms Lafsky, what is the proper
>>liberal response to being raped by a powerful liberal politician?
Hey, the woman was on his staff, so she obviously was dedicated to the liberal cause. Did it ever occur to you that maybe she thought it was worth it?

God how I fear for this country. No more room for nuance or debate–just yelling.

Melissa do not allow them to intimidate you. Good story and sorry you had to endure their echo chamber of unreasonableness.

The bad stuff happens on both sides of the aisle. The favorite recent president of the 20%ers is married to a woman who killed someone in a hit-run and never took the consequences. Whatever fate Ted Kennedy and Laura Bush may have escaped, they have lived with the knowledge of it for the rest of their lives, and there is no way it has not shaped their ethos and behavior in the intervening years. I don’t hear anyone calling for Laura Bush to retroactively go to jail, though.