Mensch tracht, und Gott lacht

Friday, January 20, 2006

Who Said It?

"Our opponents are our fellow citizens, not our enemies. Honorable people can have honest political differences. And we should strive for civility and intellectual integrity in our debates."

Hillary Clinton

Adolf Hitler

James Elliott

Karl Rove

9 comments:

James F. Elliott said...

The enemy of my enema is my colon.

No, wait...

James F. Elliott said...

Mahatma Ghandi! Wait, that's not one of the choices.

This is obviously like the "Who was the vegetarian and who was the alcoholic? Hitler or Churchill."

So, you're making a point. It must be... Hitler! No, you're not a national socialist. You hate socialists. And Nazis. Nazi socialists. Socialist Nazis. Whatever. Nihilists. Say what you will about the tenets of national socialism, at least it's a *#^$(*@% ethos.

The logical answer, given demonstrated predilections, is Karl Rove. I should therefore pick Hillary Clinton, just to annoy you.

But instead, in the spirit of narcissism (Thank you, Mr. Karnick!) and in celebration of your being one of the few people capable of reading my name and then spelling it correctly on a document (this happens a lot, I tell you), I pick me.

I hate my job. I am so bored.

Barry Vanhoff said...

Hmmm ... the third sentence of that quote comes from just about any college handbook, thus any of the four have probably said it (or at least not disagree with it).

The second sentence does not sound like anything Hillary would say.

I did an RC search and could not find it, thus eliminating James (I think).

Karl Rove would say the second sentence.

I just don't know about Hitler.

I'll go with Rove, but with only about 70% confidence.

Tom Van Dyke said...

The answer, of course, is James Elliott.

Devang said...

I saw Rove's speech (very end). Very pompous, very republican.

Tom Van Dyke said...

Spoiler. Back when I worshipped the National Lampoon (when it was a magazine and not a movie franchise), I thought lefties were the most fun. You have a structural advantage. When did you guys get to be such a drag?

(I blame Jimmy Carter. What a load.)

Hunter Baker said...

If you liked National Lampoon, I highly recommend some of P.J. O'Rourke's stuff. He's an alumnus of the mag.

"Eat the Rich" is particularly worthwhile and for some reason often on sale, undeservedly so.

Tom Van Dyke said...

Peej is my hero, and (unfortunately) one of the few righties who trots about the world, writing about what he sees.

Perhaps my favorite was his observation in the stone-age, deprived outback of Africa, that the only thing worse than being exploited by capitalism is not being exploited by capitalism.

James F. Elliott said...

I saw P.J. O'Rourke when he was doing a campus tour a few years ago. One of his better lines: "I was a Democrat for years. And then I started making money."