Joe Conason: Reagan Talked to Dictators, Too
[Joe Conason has written his political column for The New York Observer since 1992.]
Few aspects of American politics are as ridiculous and dangerous as the right-wing urge to substitute macho posturing for foreign policy. That irrepressible habit surfaces constantly now that President Obama is in the Oval Office, most recently when he shook hands with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez at the Summit of the Americas, a smiling moment that provoked calls for impeachment among the most deranged conservatives.
Such emotional excesses arise from deep insecurities, of course, and almost always involve bouts of amnesia, hypocrisy or both. For if the wingers could be honest for even a moment, they would have to admit that all of their complaints about Mr. Obama’s diplomatic style could have been lodged just as easily against his Republican predecessors.
To take the most obvious example, commentators on the right experienced a collective seizure when the American president appeared to bow to the Saudi king last month at the G-20 summit in London. Although the White House spokesman denied that Mr. Obama had actually bowed before Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz al-Saud, the video indicated a dip lower than necessary to shake the monarch’s hand. For any American president—and indeed, any American—to bow to a monarch under any circumstances is an affront to the founders.
But if Mr. Obama showed too much deference to that despot, so did George W. Bush. Back when Abdullah was still the crown prince and Mr. Bush was president, the Texan planted a kiss on the Arab leader’s lips, and then held his hand publicly. This incident occurred only seven months after 9/11, when Saudi complicity in terrorism was a matter of the gravest concern. (A few conservatives complained, but nobody was calling for impeachment of the man whom many Republicans were comparing with Churchill.)
Then came the Chávez handshake, which pitched numerous right-wing pundits and politicians into full-scale political seizures, notably including Patrick Buchanan, who shrieked that Mr. Obama “went down there and virtually groveled to these characters. … I mean what is the matter with people!” Echoing Mr. Buchanan’s ire was Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and would-be presidential aspirant.
“Everywhere in Latin America, enemies of America are going to use the picture of Chávez smiling and being with the president as proof that Chávez is now legitimate, that he’s acceptable,” complained Gingrich. “How do you mend relationships with somebody who hates your country, who actively calls for the destruction of your country, and who wants to undermine you. … We didn’t rush over, smile and greet Russian dictators.”
Now, Mr. Gingrich was once an adjunct professor of history somewhere, so he ought to have a firmer grasp of the realities of the past. His hero Ronald Reagan certainly did rush over, smile and warmly greet the Russian dictator Mikhail Gorbachev more than once during his second term as president, much to the irritation of critics on the right (even if many of them pretend to forget those instances now)...
Read entire article at New York Observer
Few aspects of American politics are as ridiculous and dangerous as the right-wing urge to substitute macho posturing for foreign policy. That irrepressible habit surfaces constantly now that President Obama is in the Oval Office, most recently when he shook hands with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez at the Summit of the Americas, a smiling moment that provoked calls for impeachment among the most deranged conservatives.
Such emotional excesses arise from deep insecurities, of course, and almost always involve bouts of amnesia, hypocrisy or both. For if the wingers could be honest for even a moment, they would have to admit that all of their complaints about Mr. Obama’s diplomatic style could have been lodged just as easily against his Republican predecessors.
To take the most obvious example, commentators on the right experienced a collective seizure when the American president appeared to bow to the Saudi king last month at the G-20 summit in London. Although the White House spokesman denied that Mr. Obama had actually bowed before Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz al-Saud, the video indicated a dip lower than necessary to shake the monarch’s hand. For any American president—and indeed, any American—to bow to a monarch under any circumstances is an affront to the founders.
But if Mr. Obama showed too much deference to that despot, so did George W. Bush. Back when Abdullah was still the crown prince and Mr. Bush was president, the Texan planted a kiss on the Arab leader’s lips, and then held his hand publicly. This incident occurred only seven months after 9/11, when Saudi complicity in terrorism was a matter of the gravest concern. (A few conservatives complained, but nobody was calling for impeachment of the man whom many Republicans were comparing with Churchill.)
Then came the Chávez handshake, which pitched numerous right-wing pundits and politicians into full-scale political seizures, notably including Patrick Buchanan, who shrieked that Mr. Obama “went down there and virtually groveled to these characters. … I mean what is the matter with people!” Echoing Mr. Buchanan’s ire was Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and would-be presidential aspirant.
“Everywhere in Latin America, enemies of America are going to use the picture of Chávez smiling and being with the president as proof that Chávez is now legitimate, that he’s acceptable,” complained Gingrich. “How do you mend relationships with somebody who hates your country, who actively calls for the destruction of your country, and who wants to undermine you. … We didn’t rush over, smile and greet Russian dictators.”
Now, Mr. Gingrich was once an adjunct professor of history somewhere, so he ought to have a firmer grasp of the realities of the past. His hero Ronald Reagan certainly did rush over, smile and warmly greet the Russian dictator Mikhail Gorbachev more than once during his second term as president, much to the irritation of critics on the right (even if many of them pretend to forget those instances now)...