On the show, the “left” was and is represented by Robert Scheer, formerly of the Los Angeles Times and now editor at Truthdig. The “center” was and is represented by the show’s host, Matt Miller.
After Huffington finally came to her senses and revised her ideology toward the center, she continued to participate in an essentially left-leaning but officially non-aligned position. She was replaced on the right by Tony Blankley.
Blankley’s claim to fame was that he was Speaker Newt Gingrich’s press secretary. After Newt was forced to resign in disgrace, Blankley failed upwards into a top editorial position at the Washington Times, a daily right-wing propaganda sheet published by the “Moonies,” a Korean cult run by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.
After listening to his vile, retrograde views for hours upon hours over the past umpteen years, my take on Tony Blankley was that he was one of those right-wingers — like his former boss Newt — who are animated first and foremost by a deep and abiding paranoia that someone somewhere is taking personal advantage of them, that — despite his own position of power and all the perquisites that come with it — what gets them out of bed every morning was a visceral loathing of the poor and downtrodden, the sick, the homeless and anyone who for any reason needed help.
It’s this toxic, Ayn Randian attitude that there is no higher virtue than selfishness — the tea party mantra: “I’ve got mine, so fuck the rest of you” — that is truly what is destroying what once a great country.
It’s a point of view that had few greater advocates than Tony Blankely, who succumbed to cancer yesterday.
I’m sure his family and friends will miss him, and I’m sorry he suffered in the end. I know that is bad form to speak ill of the dead, but I, for one, won’t miss him — and if that says more about my character than his, so be it.
But how do you REALLY feel?
I’m with you, Jon. In fact, anyone with a conscience would agree with you.
Blankley was a good guy who happened not to share your world view. He did it with a whole hell of a lot more panache than you just exhibited. Shame on you.
Some of you are so off-base on this one, and I say this as an all-out partisan of the Left. It may pain you to admit it, but historically (and long before hacks like Ayn Rand were around), a conservative version of the world has always been with us, even before the times of Locke and Hobbes. And Blankley, more than most in his crowd, spoke from that historical viewpoint and not the “I’ve got mine” crowd. And he did so with a sense of fun and wordplay (and he carried his views to their logical end, such as no wars in Afghanistan). When the Buckley’s and the Blankley’s go down, we are left only with troglydites and haters.