Pat Buchanan is getting to be an interesting turncoat....and that is not a bad thing

[Mira]

My jaw just dropped listening to Hardball out of the corner of my ear. Pat Buchanan went on a rant about the loss of money, lives, in the US and in Iraq over a war we should not have waged. He had the specifics, the numbers and the anger.
It was in reference to Asshat Cheney's appearance on CNN yesterday lying his head off about the responsibilities of his and *W*'s administration in Iraq and over the economy.

I don't know how to find a u-tube clip, but I'll watch for it, someone post it you can find it and be surprised.
We have another Arianna Huffington in the making maybe, if Pat stays this mad and changes his stripes permanently.

[FLAprogressive]

1. LOL!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[FrenchieCat]

2. He was always against the Iraq War. He is an Isolationist!

But he is still a Republican through and through!
and a racist at heart!

[Recursion]

24. His outlook is pre-Wilson

Though his views are pretty comparable to William Jennings Bryan's, who is at least in someways a hero of our party.

[malaise]

3. Pat has always hated the neo-cons

and their foreign policy.

[old mark]

12. They hate him right back, too - they have no use for him, probably

why he leans toward the Democrats - at least we listen to him, if only for amusement.

He ran for president several times. Imagine that some night when you don't need a lot of sleep....

mark

[grasswire]

4. Pat has always been against imperialism.

He wrote the book "A Republic, Not An Empire" a decade ago.

[ddeclue]

5. Pat's a wierd mixture of isolationist, racist, Nazi, and Republican..

I mean what kind of idiot running for President shows up to the UAW in a Mercedes?

:crazy:

[MnFats]

7. plus an anti-semite Jew-hating nut

he basically would be OK wiith iIsrael being pushed into the sea.

even George Will & Wm Buckley said the evidence shows he is a bigoted racist and antisemite..

[vaberella]

36. He sounds like a Libertarian. n/t

[musette_sf]

6. he's still a racist, sexist fvck

and he ain't gonna change his stripes on those.

[pepperbear]

8. Simply another case of that rare animal, the "anti-war" conservative, known to...

...inhabit remote, SAFER, parts of the political landscape. They tend to thrive in the darkest reaches of Punditryland.

I do remember this from 2000, and I have to commend him for it:

Pat Buchanan himself has admitted that most of his votes in Palm Beach County were meant for Al Gore, saying he "did not campaign and bought no advertising there" (Nichols, 2001, p. 86). He added, "I would say 95 to 98 percent of were for Gore" (id. at p. 89). The day after the election, many people were upset, saying the butterfly ballot was confusing. When the election results were "too close to call," Buchanan worried he would be charged with costing Gore the election. He said he got more media coverage after the election than he did during the campaign (id. at p. 84). The graph to the left showing an abnormally high Buchanan vote in Palm Beach County suggests the butterfly ballot cost Al Gore thousands of votes, more than enough to have won the presidency.

http://www.cagreens.org/alameda/city/0803myth/myth.html

[Mira]

11. All those labels have applied, and probably will always apply.

We know that. I do believe though there are listeners out there who are taken aback at hearing what I described coming out of PatB's mouth.

I do not remember a solid anti-war stance coming from Pat in the past, I thought he was on that band wagon.

I hear and see the changes in Tweety, that's been long coming, he is a self serving flag blowing in the wind. I don't think he has much backbone.
But Pat surprised me tonight with the vehemence and detailed knowledge and pretty uncontrolled fury.

There must be a lot I just don't understand.

:)

[burning rain]

22. Buchanan opposed both Gulf Wars.

^

[FLAprogressive]

28. sort of like Ron Paul

[eleny]

9. He was against going into Iraq from the beginning

So I'm glad he didn't hold his tongue today.

[LeftishBrit]

10. He's always been against the war.

The ONLY good thing about him - and it's because he's a xenophobic isolationist, not because he's sane or humanitarian.

Le Pen (whom Buchanan has defended in the past) and the BNP have also always been against the war. So, I believe, has David Duke.

I suppose any opposition to the war is opposition to the war; but we should beware of right-wingers, even when they agree with us on one or two points.

[bigtree]

13. I don't know why he's still allowed a forum

He's a manipulative, boorish jerk.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. Buchanan is a racist, sexist, Puritanical jerk, BUT

to his credit, he was the first public figure I recall criticizing outsourcing back in the early 1990s.

Yes, he was also against the Iraq War.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day, and Pat is a perfect example of that.

[skooooo]

16. I still stop to listen to what he says..

....most of the time. Unless he's talking about the immigrant "problem," like Lou Dobbs, or being racist.

[RandomThoughts]

15. You guys might not know this,

but back in 1985 Pat Buchanan argued the left side of the argument on Sunday morning shows. He did it while working for a left of center paper. I have not found any clips on it, but I remember it.

[EFerrari]

18. You're mistaken. He was working at the Reagan White House.

Buchanan has never argued the liberal side of anything. He has partnered up with liberals on various shows to debate, but he himself has never argued the liberal position.

[RandomThoughts]

30. I understand you disagree,

But I can remember the long conversation with friends on the issue when the show aired, even recorded it on vcr at the time. I believe the show was 'The McLaughlin Group' and he argued for the left side. Any writing of columns may have been freelance.

My point is he is paid to argue a point of view, and at least one time, he argued the left side to fill that point of view for the show. Although he does have conservative right wing politics as his personal beliefs.

I did a quick search, he was on that show in 1985, I would assume it was before rejoining the white house staff, since after that point you wouldn't think he would take the left side.

[EFerrari]

31. He's a libertarian so at times, he holds positions that coincide

with majority left opinions -- as does Ron Paul, for example. And, you're right, he was a regular on TMG.

[RandomThoughts]

34. Although I disagree with his ideologies

I have always liked Pat Buchanan, from watching him on TV he seems like a good person, just with different views, and a few issues, but we all got issues.

[rvablue]

23. I think you have Buchanan mixed up with someone else 'cause in 1985

Buchanan was Reagan's Communications Director and wasn't arguing the left side of anything anywhere.

In his 20s he wrote editorials for the St. Louis Globe Democrat, but the "Democrat" is just part of the name of the paper. The editorial board might have been "left of center" but Buchanan has never been.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Buchanan

[valerief]

17. Pabby is usually part-right, part-batshit crazy. nt

[whoneedstickets]

19. Pat is a populist and would be a democrat in a pre-McGovern world...

..he rejected the Democratic party after lefty-elites (anti-war, pro-women, sexual-revolution, social progressives) types took hold of the democratic party.

[rvablue]

29. If you believe one word of what you wrote, I have a bridge in Alaska to sell you. n/t

[Raineyb]

37. Pat Pukanan rejected the Democratic party because he's a fucking racist

Lefty elites? No, Pat thought thinks that Democrats aren't doing enough to keep black and brown people down. Let's not pretend that his disdain for the Democratic party is more principled than it really is.

Regards

[Posteritatis]

20. Buchanan's interesting

Eight times out of ten I'll think he's batshit crazy, a ninth I'll agree with him, and a tenth he'll stick a new take on an issue into my head for awhile. I'd still emigrate to the moon if he ever held high elected office, but I'd rather see him around than any number of other conservative/rightwing/etc commentators out there.

It's not a turncoat sort of thing, anyway; he's been a mostly consistent isolationist - aside from occasional bouts of wackiness like when he wanted to annex Greenland. There's a few different strains of conservative out there, just like there are with liberals and progressives, and he's trying to cling to one of the older schools of thought in that department.

[PCIntern]

21. Nazi, Holocaust-denier, racist, homophobe...

other than that, he's a great guy!!!

Remember, Nazi uniforms WERE pretty sharp looking!

:sarcasm: squared

[JerseygirlCT]

33. LOL!

That's about the size of it.

[RaleighNCDUer]

25. He epitomizes everything that was wrong with the OLD republican party,

as opposed to the NEW republican party.

The perfect paleo-con. A Nixonian, not the mutated, twisted offspring that is the neo-cons.

[TroglodyteScholar]

26. Buchanan's not a turncoat, he's a pathetic opportunist

If there's a bigger payday in peddling some Democratic points, that's what he's going to do. And with public opinion being where it is, Buchanan stands to prolong his public exposure by expressing popular views. This ridiculous shell of a man doesn't have the integrity to actually switch sides.

[Fire1]

27. Think so? Bring Palin back on the scene and watch that

jackass flip like a tossed coin.

[JerseygirlCT]

32. He's been against that war from the start.

He's an isolationist. It's sort of case of broken clock disease.

But he can be interesting, if you can avoid certain topics: immigration, anything to do with Nixon, and anything to do with women being treated as human beings.

[Mr. Sparkle]

35. Pats a rightie, but he hates the neocons just as much as anything else.

He does not like the way they have taken over the Republican/Taliban party. I think we all should wish him luck on trying to reverse that trend. ;-)