H v. H

by tristero

Via Peter Daou’s excellent blog of blogs , which of course includes brilliant original posting of his own, I learned that a rightwing blog posted a link to Hugh Hewitt’s interview with Helen Thomas. I suggest clicking on the mp3 link and taking a listen. The wingers obviously think that Hewitt got the better of Thomas. I truly don’t hear it that way and to my mind, the transcript gives a skewed notion of the way the conversation flowed. But go and judge for yourself.

In any event, I’d like to ask you about one thing, out of many that occur to me, and “who won” is not that central a question to my immediate interest here.

I’d like to suggest that it would be very instructive for liberals and Dems to look at the rhetorical strategies used by Hewitt. I’d like us to trace how a discussion that began with a simple, easy question about what Thomas thought about the vice president shooting a 78 year old man morphed into Hewitt trying to set up a faux confrontation which – while looking obviously contrived to us – was designed to make Hewitt’s dittoheads think that Thomas had been reluctantly forced to concede that Saddam was an evil man.

I think we can all agree that there seems little direct causal connection between the two subjects – unless one gets snarky, and that won’t accomplish much. So really, how did Hewitt move the conversation to that point? What were the strategies he used? What did Thomas do in response? Where did Hewitt mess up? Where did Thomas? How did they recover? What do you think Hewitt’s point was? Did he make that point – not to you, but to his dittoheads?

Most importantly, what can the next person who’s not a card-carrying Bushite learn from this in order to make it next to impossible for Hewitt to find any red meat from using these kinds of cheap tactics? I am certain this is how Hewitt interviews all those he suspects of card-carrying liberalism no matter what the topic. Knowing exactly what he does should suggest numerous ways to make it all but impossible for him to get away with it.

Not that Thomas did poorly; as I said, I think she did quite well. But I’m curious: how can the next person do even better? What would they need to do? Also, please note that I’m NOT suggesting that a single position be changed to accommodate a clown like Hewitt (or any other conservative). I am asking, “How can the next potential victim best turn Hewitt’s cynical game against him?”

I think it is more than possible to do so. This guy is a piker and I think a little bit of careful thought could make him look like a buffoon even to his own followers. Yes, folks: Even if those bias studies are right and people tend to excuse hypocrisy in those they believe in, I think it is more than possible to turn Hugh Hewitt into a joke in the eyes of the people who think he’s right.

And I think it would be a very good idea to do so.