Saturday, June 18, 2005

Free speech includes the right to say stupid things

I don’t approve of the heavy profanity in this post, but I certainly agree with the sentiment. John Cole condemns the pack mentality call to censure Dick Durbin for something he said:

Put down the kool-aid for a second. Do ill-received remarks really rise to the level of censure? Of course not.
Whatever happened to first amendment rights? Durbin has the Constitutional right to make a complete ass out of himself in the well of the Senate. He succeeded and almost certainly supplied talking points to our enemies in the world. But this knee-jerk reaction to punish speech is beyond the pale. Settle the matter at the polls in November.

9 comments:

Eric said...

Sedition? Please. If you start down the path of condemning every statement perceived as "anti-American" you're heading down a very slippery slope.

Tonight on the Capital Gang, Kate O'Beirne noted that Durbin's comments play into the widespread perception that Democrats are soft on terrorists and/or national defense. Durbin and the Democrats will be punished for this at the polls. However, if you want to ratchet things up, American soldiers can meet Durbin everywhere he goes as a constant reminder of his execrable remarks.

But official censure is not the answer.

Matthew said...

What's your position on Durbin losing his leadership post?

Eric said...

Durbin is paying a price for his intemperate remarks: he's being raked over the coals on the Sunday morning shows and his statement will certainly dog him for the remainder of his political career. I just think that an official censure sets a poor example for the limits of free speech.

And, yes, Durbin should lose his leadership post for statements much MUCH worse than what derailed Trent Lott. But I doubt the Democrats have that much shame.

Eric said...

Wow, five comments. That's heavy traffic for me! (Now six!)

Reliapundit said...

Lott resigned from his leadership position because of an unpardonable utterance, one he APOLOGIZED FOR MANY TIMES ! (AT LEAST FOUR TIMES!)

So. Must. Durbin. Apologize. And. Resign. As Whip. NOW!

Matthew said...

Sorry, but you're not allowed to count your own comments as real comments -- it's against the rules. You're also not allowed to count comments which comment on you commenting on the comments -- also against the rules. Sorry.

Anonymous said...

I don't see how it's merely "perceived" as sedition. Deliberately lying and using well-chosens references to the worst criminal regimes in the history of the world, openly and available to broadcast to the world, heartening our enemies and turning undecideds from our cause to that of our enemy? That's not a matter of perception. Did Tokyo Rose say anything more harmful?

It's one thing to utter idiocies such as "Bush lied; people died," or to actually make honest claims that our strategy is poor or that we might be in the wrong in some of foreign relations. Those can either be dismissed out of hand (the former), or as vital discourse on public policy (the latter).

I do have to agree that censure isn't quite the right answer. I think explusion is appropriate.

If the Senate decides that this behavior is appropriate, then it would be equally appropriate to call the Democrat leadership traitors on the floor of the Senate. It's just speech, right? And in this case, it would be the truth.

Anonymous said...

Wow. So much adrenaline to so little purpose.

What Dick Durbin did was to express horror at U.S. policy, and to do it in a way that was dramatic and pungent. You don't have to agree with him. But to call this treason, or treat it as somehow beyond the pale is, I think, loony.

He did not betray national secrets. He did not call for the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. He did not endorse the enemy's agenda. He simply stated his view--a perfectly legitimate one, even if you don't agree with it--in a powerful way.

Anonymous said...

How would you describe people who treat their prisoners like this?


.. a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water.

Most times they urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18-24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold....On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees.

The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night.

On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor