The Strange, Pathetic World of David Gergen

Here is the church, here is the steeple. Open the doors, see all the people serving at government expense!

You might remember several months ago when David Gergen rolled into Claremont McKenna, exhorting (or was it extorting?) all of us to join his Teach for America outfit. I blogged about his inanities at the time.

Serve a cause greater than yourself through "voluntary" (read: taxpayer subsidized) service, he hollered.

As if service isn't important unless it is recognized by the government. (Speaking of service, Gergin certainly wasn't talking about his own military service. He spent the better part of the post-WWII period at port in Japan while his countrymen died liberating Vietnam.)

I challenged him and argued that my service was going to pay taxes on a company or two that I help found -- only to have him attack me for being on financial aid! "Don't you want to give back to your country?" he demanded. I replied that I already give back, but that I don't need the government to tell me how.

This is Classic Gergen, the political transsexual that will work for any master so long as he gets to say the conventional wisdom as boringly as possible.

Incredibly, Gergen tried to argue that Obama was going to get shot because America is, oh, so racist. Way to elevate the conversation!

Now he's trying to attack the McCain camp for much the same thing. He says that criticizing Obama's arrogance -- he has made a presidential seal for himself, like all good demagogues -- is de facto racist and that the McCain camp is using code words to call Obama "uppity." Please!