Re: Alternatives

Continetti takes Joe Klein to task for his patently false claim that “There is no Republican health-care alternative in 2009.” It’s the kind of “intellectual dishonesty” of which Klein and others on the left so often accuse Republicans. But Klein isn’t just intellectually dishonest. He’s plain dishonest. How else to explain the fact that after nearly two months, he has still not retracted this statement:

…the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is a triumph of diplomacy. It should be something more than that, though: the beginning of a negotiation. Releasing Shalit is a gesture by Hamas that clearly demands an Israeli response–opening the checkpoints into Gaza for construction equipment and materials, so the Gazans can start rebuilding their homes, would be a start.

Gilad Shalit still languishes in captivity. There was no triumph of diplomacy, but a triumph of naivete — Klein had such a friendly interview with Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal earlier that month that he came away believing “that Israel is the prime impediment to progress in the Middle East.”

Maybe Klein would like to inform his readers that Gilad Shalit has not yet been released by Hamas? Or am I just being a “prosaic tactician”?

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