THE JO-TEL … illegal blog downfield

We were talking on The Network this afternoon about the brouhaha being made out of McCain economic advisor [and all-around idiot] Douglas Holtz-Eakin’s comment regarding McCain vis-a-vis [FN1] the BlackBerry. The media have picked up on this and run with it as though Holtz-Eakin said McCain invented the BlackBerry. In fact, that’s what they’re saying he said. [Note: that’s two separate links; sadly I can’t link to the email I got from the DNC this evening…]

No one among us was disputing the fact that Holtz-Eakin was clearly not saying that, but rather holding up his BlackBerry as a symbol of the US telecom infrastructure that we now all enjoy on our BlackBerrys and iPhones and MacBooks - and all sorts of other products with capital letters thrown in the middle of their names [FN2]. To wit: here is H-E’s exact quote:

“He did this. Telecommunications of the United States, the premiere innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce Committee. So you’re looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create,” Holtz-Eakin said. “And that’s what he did. He both regulated and deregulated the industry.”

Not sure what the fuck he means with that last sentence - and I can guarantee you McCain didn’t actually do shit for telecom, considering he has no clue how to use a computer - but the quote as a whole is self-evident, especially when you don’t see him holding up a BlackBerry when he says “He did this.”

Anyway, we weren’t disputing what he said; the sides we took were: taking this non-story out of context and distorting it to make McCain look ridiculous is not OK; and taking this non-story out of context and distorting it to make McCain look ridiculous is OK. I’m on the “not OK” side of the fence on this one; while I don’t discourage the use of GOP tactics against the GOP, per se, it annoys me that the DNC has stooped to the same level as the GOP d’bags in 2000 who peddled the “Gore said he invented the Internet” myth. On the other hand, I can’t tell you how badly I want McCain to lose the election. Moral equivocation: it’s a rough mistress.

There’s an acronym that’s pretty popular on liberal blogs: IOKIYAR, meaning “It’s OK if you’re a Republican”; it’s used derisively to describe the way the GOP uses tactics it publicly decries. [Perfect example: Dana Perino and all of the right-wing bobbleheads shitting on Obama’s suggestion that it’s a good idea to hold diplomatic talks with Syria and then sending Condi Rice to do exactly that less than a month later.] This strikes me as a case of IOKIYAD, as it were: eight years ago (and, I might add, today) people were (and are) pissed that the whole Gore-Internet shit was pushed so hard that he eventually lost the election as a [admittedly partial] result. But now that it’s being done in the Dems’ favor: no problem.

So: spinning this comment to the Dems’ advantage: OK or not OK?

- Thrill

FN1: Sorry about that; I hate “vis-a-vis” as much as you do, but there’s nothing else I could’ve used there; I’d already used “regarding” like two words earlier.
FN2: For you English dorks out there, this is called CamelCase. [pushes glasses up nose with forefinger…]