Liberal Joe Klein is trying to backtrack from a quote he gave the Politico, in which he said, of conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer,
"He became ground zero among the neo-cons, but he's vastly smarter than most of them," said Time's Joe Klein, an admirer and critic who praised Krauthammer's "writing skills and polemical skills" as "so far above almost anybody writing columns today."
"There's something tragic about him, too," Klein said, referring to Krauthammer's confinement to a wheelchair, the result of a diving accident during his first year of medical school. "His work would have a lot more nuance if he were able to see the situations he's writing about."
Plenty of friends and fellow conservatives have taken Klein to task for the callous comment, and Allahpundit has the best lines:
If he did mean it the way it sounds, then it looks like a derivative of the chickenhawk smear. He can’t rightly accuse a hawkish pundit who’s handicapped of being too gutless to lace up the boots, so instead he turns it into faux sympathy for how poor Charles can’t help but be blinkered as a prisoner of his condition.
Klein is now backpedaling as quickly as possible away from the comment, arguing, not that he was taken out of context exactly, but that, well, someone might construe his remarks as insensitive, and he apologizes for offending that someone.
Really? That's the best he can do?
Well, I suppose if you are Joe Klein, it really is the best you can do. After all, Klein goes back to reiterate the point that you have to see the war to understand the war. Even though he doesn't think it hampered FDR in any way, not seeing the war and all.
See, because the truth is that Klein isn't concerned if he offended disabled people--and their loved ones--or not. That's just another casualty in the smear war the Left plays against anyone who has the temerity to agree with our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Those with disabilities live with these backhands all the time. You're pretty smart...for a guy in a wheelchair. You do good work but it's not the neatest...because of your handicap. You have done a brilliant job...for someone who can't walk/see/hear.
Most people aren't as stupid as Klein, though. They leave out the part I italicized. It's just implied. The best is the guy on hand crutches whose wife is pregnant, and all the people who act amazed that he can have children. The old fashioned way. Who knew?!
I suspect Allahpundit was correct when he said Klein was attempting a slight spin on the chickenhawk smear. After all, it would be unseemly to attack someone because of an immutable characteristic, right?
UPDATE: Donald Douglas has a wonderful post examining the Krauthammer-Klein controversy.
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