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Jewish World Review Dec. 10, 1998/21 Kislev, 5759
Larry Elder
Will the real America stand up?
IT WAS VINTAGE ALAN DERSHOWITZ, the attorney and race card player
extraordinaire. Appearing as an anti-impeachment panelist before the House
Judiciary Committee, Dershowitz accused Georgia conservative Republican Rep.
Bob Barr of "racism," "bigotry" and "anti-Semitism." What did Rep. Barr do
to incur the wrath of Dershowitz?
Here's what happened.
Barr: "Despite the fact that some of our law professors here today think
that this matter should all be handled by the courts, and the Constitution
should just be shoved aside, real America understands that the Constitution
is there for a reason -- that it does mean something. I don't think these
views represent the clarity and the rationality and the common sense with
which the real America views these matters."
Barr: "That is the silliest thing I have ever heard."
Dershowitz: "I hear you describe me as something other than a real
American. Shame on you! We may have a disagreement about the merits of these
issues, but I would no more impugn your Americanism, and you shouldn't
impugn mine."
Barr: "You're being silly, professor. You're being absolutely silly."
Perhaps this a distinction without a difference, but Barr said "real
America." Yet Dershowitz accused him of saying "real Americans."
Later, on CNBC's "Rivera Live," Dershowitz stepped up the attack. This
time, he accused Barr of calling Dershowitz "un-American." So "real America"
became "real Americans," which, in turn, became "un-American." What's next,
"unreal Americans"?
"Real America," for many Washington pols, simply means outside the Beltway,
where common folks live, work hard and pay taxes. You know, Joe and Joan
Six-pack.
But Dershowitz apparently thinks the term "real Americans" conjures up
images of Jim Crow, internment camps, attack dogs and water hoses. Does
Dershowitz sincerely believe Barr's use of the expression "real America"
makes him a 1950s southern segregationist?
Of course not. Dershowitz employed a tactic -- switch the subject. His 1983
book, "The Best Defense," laid it all out. "Almost all criminal defendants
are, in fact, guilty." "In representing criminal defendants -- especially
guilty ones -- it is often necessary to take the offensive against the
government: to put the government on trial for its misconduct."
Barr called Dershowitz's reaction "silly." He's right. Let's go to the
videotape.
July 5, 1995, President Clinton: "Look, I know America first and foremost
is a place where individual effort and family values count. That's why I am
successful. But I live in the real America -- not in Washington, D.C."
(Annual convention of the American Association of Physicians from India.)
June 14, 1997, President Clinton: "Remember how you have seen things like
that during the natural disasters here in California. That is the face of
the real America. That is the face I have seen over and over again. That is
the America somehow, some way, we have to make real in daily American life."
(University of California at San Diego, Calif.)
Aug. 14, 1998, President Clinton: "America's got a good agenda in the
coming months. We can be for saving Social Security first, better schools, a
cleaner environment and a Patient's Bill of Rights, and we can sell that in
every place in America. They are real choices real Americans face in this
election." (Democratic National Committee Labor lunch, Washington, D.C.)
Feb. 18, 1994, Prime Minister John Major of Great Britain: "The president
told you most of the story of how I came to be here this evening. ... 'Come
and have a look at a bit of Pittsburgh,' said the president. ‘Come and see a
bit of real America.' And here I am." (Pittsburgh Airport.)
May 4, 1994, Hillary Rodham Clinton: "They have enabled this day to come
about, because they were willing to think differently, to put people first,
to solve real problems that real Americans face every day." (Signing of the
School-To-Work Opportunities Act, White House.)
Feb. 12, 1998, Democratic House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt: "We will
carry on this fight every day of the rest of this year to fight for the real
issues that real Americans care about so deeply." (News briefing, Trinity
College.)
Dershowitz played the race card. Not satisfied with simply calling the
pro-impeachment camp wrong or unfair, this Clinton attack-squad member
unleashed a new weapon -- calling Clinton's critics bigoted and
anti-Semitic. Hey, whatever works.
Targets change, but tactics remain the same. Attack, demean,
mischaracterize. Judge Robert Bork, Justice Clarence Thomas, independent
counsel Ken Starr, and now Rep. Bob Barr. What a distinguished panel of ...
Dershowitz: "Let me respond to why I perceive this to be a personal attack.
First of all, whenever I hear the words 'real Americans,' that sounds to me
like a code word for racism, a code word for bigotry, a code word for
anti-Semitism. You ought to be ashamed."
The Dersh
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6/25/98: And you thought "coke" was worse than smokes
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5/18/98: This just in
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4/23/98:PRESIDENTIAL HOOP DREAMS
4/16/98:To spank or not to spank
4/10/98:TWA: TEACHING WHILE ASIAN