Yes Peggy, You're Cool

In the WSJ today Peggy Noonan's again doing her usual I'm just oh so reasonable compared to most of the other pundits and politicians out there being hysterical and why can't they all be like me routine. Some of her comments are plainly insipid. Consider this gem.

Ask Ted Kennedy, if he had it to do over again, if he would repeat all his intemperate and unjust words about "Bob Bork's America" and "back-alley abortions" and blacks turned away from lunch counters. He'd be a fool if he said yes. He damaged himself in that battle.

Oh really? I won't make any remarks about the foolishness of Ted Kennedy, but I doubt he'd say that he was wrong to slander Bork. He and his Democratic colleagues didn't consider themselves "damaged". They've continued the practice of character assassination of Republican nominees for the Federal Appeals Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. The list is long. Clarence Thomas, Miguel Estrada, Samuel Alito, Charles Pickering, Priscilla Owen, Bill Pryor to name a few. Kennedy and friends regret nothing.
How about this from Noonan.

Newt Gingrich twitters that Judge Sotomayor is a racist. Does anyone believe that?

If by racist you mean someone makes decisions about individuals based on their race, then yes, I believe that. Look beyond her "wise Latina woman" comment and consider her ruling in the Ricci case. Why did she reject the plaintiffs' claim that they were unjustly denied promotions? Was it because they were unqualified? Was the test unfair? No. She denied it because they weren't African-American. Isn't that racism?

And then there's Noonan's trademark sappiness.

New York is proud of her; I'm proud of our country and grateful at its insistence, in a time when some say the American dream is dead, that it most certainly is not. The dream is: You can come from any place or condition, any walk of life, and rise to the top, taking your people with you, in your heart and theirs. Maybe that's what they mean by empathy: Where you come from enters you, and you bring it with you as you rise. But if that's what they mean, then we're all empathetic. We're the most fluid society in human history, but no one ever leaves their zip code in America, we all take it with us. It's part of our pride. And it's not bad, it's good.

As the expression goes, Oh puke.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124354585930464037.html