November 18, 2003
Has Wes Clark been reading Heinlein?
Posted by
Mark Kleiman
"Insult 'em until they apologize." (Jubal Harshaw in Stranger in a Strange Land, if memory serves, though a google finds similar phrases as early as The Star Beast and as late as the Lazarus Long stories.)
That's how Clark dealt with a nasty Fox News interviewer who tried to suggest that calling Iraq a "sideshow" in the war on terrorism was an insult to the troops. It's a beautiful thing to watch.
Update: Here's the transcript, in case you're having trouble loading the video.
And it's probably good politics, too, with journalists rating somewhere below Mafiosi in public esteem.
Thanks to Kevin Drum for the pointer.
