The number of people who are qualified to disagree with Joe Klein is dwindling. I have been drafted here at THE WEEKLY STANDARD Online to take issue with Time’s political columnist, as I am not now, nor have I ever been Jewish, Roman Catholic, or physically disabled. At such time as any of those three conditions changes, I will immediately desist criticism, as I could no longer possibly be an intellectually honest debater. But as of now, Klein can rest assured that the only divided loyalties I have are between Tide Mountain Fresh and Spring Fresh (they both smell so nice!). Other commentators are not blessed with the same qualifications as I but inexplicably persist in criticism of Klein’s arguments. People like Charles Krauthammer, for instance:
In a Politico story last week about conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer, Mr. Klein said “there’s something tragic” about the quadriplegic writer’s work, as it “would have had a lot more nuance if he were able to see the situations he’s writing about.”… Rationalizing his disgraceful remark on Time’s Web site, Mr. Klein wrote that Mr. Krauthammer’s “unflinching support for American unilateralism … caused the unnecessary loss of life.” So not only is Mr. Krauthammer’s writing hindered by his physical disability, he’s also responsible for the deaths of countless American soldiers and Iraqi civilians because he … writes newspaper columns that Mr. Klein doesn’t like?
Jamie Kirchick, the author of the above passage, dares to call out Klein in the pages of the Washington Times, despite the fact that he is clearly disqualified from doing so by both his religion and foreign policy views:
Last summer, he attacked the “great many Jewish neoconservatives” who “plumped for [the Iraq] war” and whose hawkishness on Iran “raised the question of divided loyalties: using U.S. military power, U.S. lives and money, to make the world safe for Israel.” (Notice the cowardly use of the passive voice. Who “raised the question” that Jews have divided loyalties, Joe, other than unapologetic anti-Semites and yourself?) Mr. Klein derides these individuals as “Professional Jews,” an epithet that applies to any of his co-religionists with whom he disagrees. (Full disclosure: Several weeks ago, Mr. Klein wrote, in response to a column I published in another newspaper, that I was “overwhelmingly limited,” an insult I’m still trying to figure out. Given his propensity for adolescent name-calling and mockery of people for their innate traits, I should consider myself lucky he didn’t call me a “Professional Queer.”) Since Sept. 11, 2001, the notion that Jews harbor “divided loyalties” has become a disturbing trope among some elements of the American left, and it’s troubling to see this hoary slander find a home in the pages of Time.
Even though Kirchick is handicapped by his ideology, I hope that I can recommend his piece to you from a place of unclouded, gentile judgment of which Klein would approve. On the other hand, some of my best friends are Jewish, neoconservative, and/or physically disabled, so you may not be able to believe a word I say. I’ll have to get a clarification on that from Joe.
