@cmon bwog (let me caution this reply w/the statement that i’m very proud of columbia’s protestors, who showed their disagreement with mccain in a dignified, adult and respectful manner which got across their point)

your blue is seeping through the bi-partisan suit you’re trying to keep on. If you’re going to claim salter was ineloquent at least post ‘his’ (is there any confirmation it was him) comment: contrary to your beliefs, which are obviously biased by your political opposition to him, they are quite eloquent and definitely a strong defense of McCain’s characters vs. Rohe’s, which is what she appears to challenge.

Secondly, if you wish to quote to take political potshots as ad hominem attacks, at least contextualize. Don’t selectively choose lines to make a speaker look foolish, especially if you wish to do a close reading, because then you’ll just descend to one of the many books that tries to get 1000 bush gaffe’s by taking unusual lines out of entire paragraphs. For example the line you claimed was rude was actually in the following paragraph by Salter:

“Let me tell you a little bit about the Senator, the man you dismiss so derisively. Once upon time, even among the young, the words courage and hero were used more sparingly, more precisely. It took no courage to do what you did, Ms. Rohe. It was an act of vanity and nothing more. And please don’t worry about the Senator’s discomfort with you. He has managed to endure much worse. McCain was once offered release from imprisonment and torture because of his father’s position as a senior military officer. He declined because he would not leave his comrades behind, and thus, willingly, accepted four more years of hardships life will spare almost all of us from. In his political career he has shown the same character he showed as a Navy officer all those years ago. He has, over and over again, risked personal ambitions for what he believes, rightly or wrongly, are in the best interests of the country. What, pray tell, have you risked? The only person you have succeeded in making look like an idiot is yourself.”

in response to what was the obvious self reverential, arrogrant and disrespectul claims Rohe made in her post:

“What if I tore McCain’s speech apart before he even opened his mouth? After reading his speech a couple of times I picked out a few particularly loathsome sections–and believe it or not, none of these actually came from the extensive section where he defends his position on the war in Iraq–and I began planning an attack against him using his own words.
o in the wee hours of the morning I set out to revise my speech, re-saving it as “mccain speech subversive.doc”.
I almost wanted to warn the guy that I was about to make him look like an idiot so that he would at least have a fighting chance and an extra moment to change his speech to save himself.
“I’m sorry, man,” I told him, “I just had to do it.” People who truly care about human beings don’t vote for an unjust war, among other things, simply as a political maneuver. Enough said.es, McCain was undoubtedly shouted-out and heckled by people who were not politely absorbing his words so as to consider them fully from every angle. But what did he expect? gnorant, closed-minded people would not have been able to do what we did. We chose to be in New York for our years of higher education for the very reason that we would be challenged to listen to opposing viewpoints each and every day and to deal with that challenge in a nonviolent manner. I think we must remember that as big as this moment may seem to me today and perhaps to other supporters who are reading this article, this is a very small victory in a time when democracy is swiftly eroding under the pressure of the right wing in this country.hope that other people found strength in my act of protest and will one day find themselves in my position, drawing out their own bravery to speak truth.”

Ms. Rohe is certainly very full of herself and very sure of her righteousness when she proclaims statements which essentially demonize half the country. She also directly attacks teh character of McCain, a war veteran who is much, much (he can’t lift his hand above his head because of the torture he suffered defending this country) more familiar w/war by suggesting his support was in good part merely a political decision (one wonders he opinion of kerry and hillary and others who are now backpedaling). On top of that she also repeatedly claims that coming to new york to go to school as a liberal or somebody who was very liberal allowed her and her classmates (who again were the vocal majority in the crowd when they disrupted–once again proving it doesn’t necessarily take courage to protest) to view other viewpoints and debate them. I would query Mrs. Rohe as to what percent of the 80-90% of the liberal populace of teh city or her school did so directly challenge her views. The only people who truly challenge themselves politically are those who do immerse themselves in an honest intellectual and open minded way amongst their opponents’ views, and I seriously doubt she or many of her protestors really did that or wish too. In fact, their actions seem to be more of a self-reverential self segregation than any attempt to engage in real discourse. What is amusing and is lost in this thing is Rohe’s original speech and other overrarching idea—peace through music. That’s the ticket. Perhaps the answer to war is music! A Jam session to blow smoke into the war machine’s monkey face. In that sense, we may need to applaud Rohe, who so gallantly has decided to be our generation’s Nero, who will fiddle while Rome burns.