Chucky Schumer's Language Tricks

One of the things we've flogged again and again here in HazZzMat is the way in which the American left continually warps the English language to appear as innocent as the driven snow. While, in fact, committing the same kind of "villainy" that they routinely accuse conservatives of undertaking. PowerLine has a good example of this today.

New York's loathsome Senator Chucky Schumer (actually, New York has two loathsome Senators but we won't go there right now), the Democrat-controlled Senate's attack dog assigned with destroying the Bush Justice Department, hammers away at a DOJ official for allegedly favoring—God forbid—right-leaning legal eagles when making DOJ appointments (links courtesy HazZzMat):

Schumer was grilling [DOJ official Brad] Schlozman about the recruitment policies of the Civil Rights Division. Schlozman testified that the Division recruited at the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society, but also with liberal groups. Pressed by Schumer for the names of such groups, Schlozman cited MALDEF [Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund] and NAPABA [National Asian Pacific American Bar Association].

To which the Dem's pit bull responded:

MALDEF is not the equivalent of the Heritage - the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society have an ideological hue to them. These others are Native American organizations, Hispanic American organizations. Those are different.

Oh, really, Chuck? More precisely, Schumer should have responded like one of the characters in an old Cheech and Chong movie: "It's the same, only different." In point of fact, both MALDEF and NAPABA are the typical leftist front groups masquerading as ethnic benevolent societies, which PowerLine's Paul Mirengoff quickly points out:

...the fact that MALDEF is an Hispanic American organization does not mean it lacks "an ideological hue." The ideology of an organization, if any, is determined by the views it espouses (and arguably the views of its members), not its racial or ethnic composition. MALDEF has consistently espoused left-liberal positions.

Paul concludes:

Schumer is playing an old and intellectually dishonest game -- ascribing an ideological agenda to his opponents while denying that his allies have one. It's a game favored by some modern liberals, but one that suggests a totalitarian mindset.

Game, set, and match. The only improvement I'd make to Paul's comment here would be in his last sentence. This "intellectually dishonest game" doesn't merely suggest a totalitarian mindset. Paul is opening the kimono on a long established, verifiable totalitarian mindset, inspired by Stalinist tactics in the old Soviet Union, and given a subtle face by the ingenious refinements of Marxist theoretician Antonio Gramsci.

It's good that Paul and others have begun to call the Democrats on their thuggish tactics at long last. But this stuff has been going on for so long that it might just be time to treat the subject a little less politely. We could expect no less from the Dem's Grand Inquisitor, Chucky Schumer.