THIESSEN CAN’T HELP HIMSELF…. Marc Thiessen, up until recently George W. Bush’s chief speechwriter, has been on a roll lately. It’s almost as if he perceives an opening for a new generation of outrageous right-wing commentators, and wants to stake his claim to the leadership.
Last week, Thiessen argued that if Barack Obama changes Bush’s national-security apparatus in anyway, he’ll invite domestic terrorism and will shoulder the blame for American deaths. Also last week, Thiessen argued in a print column that Obama “is already proving to be the most dangerous man ever to occupy the Oval Office.”
Yesterday, Thiessen kept the madness going, praising the torture of Abu Zubaydah and heralding those Bush administration officials who did the torturing.
“They’re not torturers. They’re heroes…. And the thought that we’re sitting here discussing whether these people should be prosecuted or investigated is just outrageous. These people are American heroes who saved lives and stopped the next Sept. 11.”
First, Zubaydah was never the terrorist mastermind the Bushies made him out to be, and torturing him led, predictably, to a lot of bogus intelligence. Second, the evidence supporting Thiessen’s arguments about torture helping prevent “the next Sept. 11” is literally unbelievable. And third, calling those who commit acts of torture “heroes” is just twisted.
As for Marc Thiessen, I have to admit, I’d barely heard of the guy before he started railing against Obama. Being Bush’s chief speechwriter in 2008 was a fairly low-profile gig. So, what’s his background?
Apparently, he was a spokesperson for Jesse Helms from 1995 to 2001, where he, among other things, declared the International Criminal Court “the the most dangerous threat to sovereignty since the League of Nations.”
As Steve M. noted, “[I]f there’s an unneutered-pitbull quality to Thiessen’s rhetoric, well, he apprenticed with a master.”
