I Wish . . .

I wish I could write like Mark Steyn. Steyn is a dynamo, publishing columns tither and yon on and almost daily basis -- tither as in England, yon as in Australia and Canada. And he publishes columns in the States as well, principally in the Chicago Sun-Times. He is a terribly skilled writer with an ear for sarcasm and an incapacity for suffering fools. The combination results in a writer whose "hat-handing" skills are second to none (I do not, though, rule out the possibility that Lileks will run a dead heat with Steyn on a good day). Today, Mark's gaze lights on Dick Durbin:

The senator from Illinois' comparisons are as tired as they're grotesque. They add nothing useful to the debate. But around the planet, folks naturally figure that, if only 100 people out of nearly 300 million get to be senators, the position must be a big deal. Hence, headlines in the Arab world like "U.S. Senator Stands By Nazi Remark." That's al-Jazeera, where the senator from al-Inois is now a big hero -- for slandering his own country, for confirming the lurid propaganda of his country's enemies. Yes, folks, American soldiers are Nazis and American prison camps are gulags: don't take our word for it, Senator Bigshot says so.

This isn't a Republican vs Democrat thing; it's about senior Democrats who are so over-invested in their hatred of a passing administration that they've signed on to the nuttiest slurs of the lunatic fringe. It would be heartening to think that Durbin will himself now be subjected to some serious torture. Not real torture, of course; I don't mean using Pol Pot techniques and playing the Celine Dion Christmas album really loud to him. But he should at least be made a little uncomfortable over what he's done -- in a time of war, make an inflammatory libel against his country's military that has no value whatsoever except to America's enemies. Shame on him, and shame on those fellow senators and Democrats who by their refusal to condemn him endorse his slander.

Emphasis mine. Hear ya go, Dick:

Merry Christmas