This week’s Whopper once again targets the Wall Street Journal. In a May 7th article entitled, “Obama Unleashes the Left,” Daniel Henninger argues that “the left has hit ramming speed across a broad swath of American life” and those out of line with the left’s “ bizarre claims are being hit and hit hard.” Among the examples of hard hits that Henninger cites are protests at Rutgers University that led Condoleeza Rice to withdraw as a commencement speaker and Mozilla CEO’s Brendan Eich being forced out because of his donations to Proposition 8.
Regardless of whether you consider these events outrageous, you may be wondering how they are connected with President Obama? Henninger provides the answer. Obama “let the dogs out” when his Department of Justice signed an agreement last May with the University of Montana to resolve a Title IX dispute over a sexual-assault case. Now, Henninger considers this agreement to be Orwellian, and I leave readers to draw their own conclusions on the matter. But defining the agreement as the trigger that unleashed the left to clobber its opponents is a Galactic Whopper.
To begin with, campus protests against speakers- to put it mildly – predate the Montana agreement by years if not decades. A speech by Henry Cabot Lodge was shut down at Stanford during the Vietnam War. At Rutgers, the very site of Rice’s withdrawal, protests blocked an address by Meg Whitman back in 2009. Also, campus unhappiness against Ms. Rice began long before the Missoula agreement and was triggered much more by her alleged involvement in war crimes and torture than a Title IX issue. Similarly, boycotts and recriminations against Proposition 8 supporters began almost immediately after the measure’s passage in November of 2008. Are all of these activities to be understood as premature examples of the left’s unleashing in anticipation of Obama’s DOJ deal?
Secondly, campus protests are not always aimed at conservatives. Obama’s speech at Notre Dame in 2009 was the subject of intense negative reaction. Moreover, Attorney General Eric Holder had to cancel a speech last month to the Police Academy Graduation in Oklahoma City after Republican opponents threatened to bring out hundreds of demonstrators. One GOP State Representative pronounced the cancelation as a “victory.”
Third, isn’t it at least possible that the DOJ agreement with the University of Montana had less to do with Obama’s intent to let out the leftist hounds and more to do with an investigation by a retired Associate of the Montana Supreme Court that discovered 9 cases of sexual assault against students in an 18 month period?
Finally, an additional comment is unfortunately necessary. Just weeks ago, hundreds of armed members of right-wing “militias” prevented federal officials from enforcing lawful obligations on a Nevada rancher. Many Republican and conservative commentators approved of this action until the rancher was revealed to believe American Blacks were better off under slavery. At this time, under these circumstances, what kind of a person writes a hysterical column accusing the President of the United States of unleashing the left?
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