American Politics Journal

Osama: Not Enough For The Right
by Steve Young

Nov. 21, 2001 -- LOS ANGELES (APJP) -- With the Taliban on the run and stories of their willingness to give up Osama bin Laden, it's time for the right to re-up their "Bash Clinton" membership. That's right. The radio and cable talk shows' favorite cash cow is being brought out for further skewing. Would anyone be surprised if we found out that Bill is on the payroll of Roger Ailes and his confederates?

Sunday, Dick Morris reported, "I had a good illustration of Clinton's remoteness from terrorist issues in 1996 when Dick Holbrooke called me, several months after the terrorist attack on US barracks in Ridyah, Saudi Arabia. Holbrooke, who told me that he had never had the opportunity to speak with Clinton directly during the months that he was negotiating the Dayton peace accords in Bosnia, asked that I get hold of the President to pass along a message. Holbrooke said that he had information that the terrorists were planning another attack in Ridyah and that our troops were highly vulnerable. 'They are stuck in the same buildings the terrorists attacked last time.' I called the President and passed along Holbrooke's message. He had no idea that the troops were still in the barracks and said that he had ordered them dispersed to the desert six weeks before. 'I've got a meeting with the Joint Chiefs in the morning,' the President said. 'I'll raise hell with them.' Shockingly, he was so little involved in protecting our troops -- already the object of a terrorist attack -- that he had no idea that his order had not been executed until I happened to call."

Ah yes. I have no doubt that the President of the United States would be offering the trusted Dick Morris private comments on what he'd discuss with the Joint Chief Of Staff. I know we would have to stretch the believability here, but would it be possible that Clinton might not tell Morris all he knew? Morris also let on that Clinton revealed to him that he'd also been behind the Archduke Ferdinand assassination, colon cancer and that meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs.

Hillary Clinton also remains central to the Right's pressing matters. Los Angles radio talk show host Larry Elder wrote that Hillary Clinton's description of daughter Chelsea's September 11 morning in New York was different from what Chelsea wrote in her own "Talk" magazine piece. Holy breaking news! Elder said this was "a major news item" because "Internet publisher Matt Drudge noted the conflicting accounts in his November 9 Drudge Report."

In her column, Ann Coulter said, "Everyone wishes [Clinton would] just go away and stop sending himself botulism out of anthrax envy." Go away? Is she kidding? She's making mortgage payments with Clinton's very existence, though who really thinks that even the death of Clinton would stop them?

Michael Long wrote recently, "I'm not surprised by much anymore from this guy [Clinton, naturally, is the "guy"] and his buddies. If the cops found fourteen paperboys buried under Clinton's front porch, Paul Begala and Terry McAuliffe would be up there inside of an hour making like Officer Barbrady on 'South Park': Move along, people, nothing to see here."

Nice to see the Right have kept all this discourse on a civil plane.

In truth, I do not mind the rights of the Right to say what they want. What I'm really pissed at are that those who own and mange the powerful radio and television syndicates who don't offer and balance. Don't go throwing the old "liberal media" bull -- whether you believe it or not, Jennings, Rather, Rivera, NPR, et al don't bring forth anything near the venom you hear on the radio and on cable TV. At least they have Snow, Hume and the hoard of radio and cable heads to available to respond 24/7. Alan Colmes and Bill Press are all there is -- and what is that?

Supposedly, liberal talk doesn't work. I'm aware that the Mario Cuomo radio experiment from a few years back didn't pan out, but it can work, entertain and be profitable. Isn't there a Westwood One or other radio syndicator that can step forth and make the effort? Are the DNC, Terry McAuliffe, and/or the DLC ready to step up to the plate? Are we to allow the hate of the right go on unabated as they push their agenda and candidates down our throats?

2002 and 2004 are closing in. Let's get on the air ASAP. If there is a radio syndicator willing to make this work, please contact Steve Young at theeothersteveyoung@juno.com and I'll tell you how.

Steve Young is a Prism Award winner and Humanitas nominee for his TV writing. He regularly comments on radio talk shows on jewishworldnews.com. E-mail theeothersteveyoung@juno.com.