The Decline and Fall of Marty Peretz

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Verbatim Marty Peretz: "I'm Sick of Nancy Pelosi, Her Sanctimony, and Her as Speaker; Maybe She Should Hand the Gavel over to Jane Harman"

Marty really outdid himself this time.

He goes on:

Nancy Pelosi is one of those Democrats who is trying to keep the ghost of George Bush alive so that his dishonesty and bumptioun continue to deflect from what's going on in Washington now.

Have to love this--here's a man who will jump at every possibility for references to Munich getting after someone for remembering a past that is all of 3 1/2 months ago!

Of course, the real reason Peretz doesn't like Pelosi is that she doesn't like torture and she's not entirely in the pocket of Israel. That he would name Jane Harman as a better choice is hilarious. Harman is the California representative who met with AIPAC (the leading pro-Israel lobbying group) and agreed to help kill the espionage case against members of that group lobbying for her to keep her position on the House Intelligence Committee.

But for Peretz, the only thing that matters is the fealty one is willing to show Israel. A secondary concern is how racist you are toward Arabs and brown people more generally. And Harman fits at least the former to a tee.

As commenter charles1649 says:

I can't believe Marty Peretz just griped about someone else's sanctimony. He's been spewing this Israel first stuff for years under the guise of some sort of moral fortitude- making Joe Lieberman look positively nuanced and thoughtful on the issue. Pot meet kettle?

Indeed.

Peretz--Not Only Racist Toward Palestinians!

New Republic owner Marty Peretz's racism toward Palestinians is well documented, particularly by our own former writer Matt Duss. See this example:

I actually believe that Arabs are feigning outrage when they protest what they call American (or Israeli) "atrocities." They are not shocked at all by what in truth must seem to them not atrocious at all. It is routine in their cultures. That comparison shouldn't comfort us as Americans. We have higher standards of civilization than they do. But the mutilation of bodies and beheadings of people picked up at random in Iraq does not scandalize the people of Iraq unless victims are believers in their own sect or members of their own clan. And the truth is that we are less and less shocked by the mass death-happenings in the world of Islam. Yes, that's the bitter truth. Frankly, even I--cynic that I am--was shocked in the beginning by the sectarian bloodshed in Iraq. But I am no longer surprised. And neither are you.

And Matt has many more examples here.

But now, Peretz is expanding his game, attacking other brown people as well, particularly the Mexicans. This is what he had to say yesterday about Mexicans:

Well, I am extremely pessimistic about Mexican-American relations, not because the U.S. had done anything specifically wrong to our southern neighbor but because a (now not quite so) wealthy country has as its abutter a Latin society with all of its characteristic deficiencies: congenital corruption, authoritarian government, anarchic politics, near-tropical work habits, stifling social mores, Catholic dogma with the usual unacknowledged compromises, an anarchic counter-culture and increasingly violent modes of conflict. Then, there is the Mexican diaspora in America, hard-working and patriotic but mired in its untold numbers of illegals, about whom no one can talk with candor.

Marty, what about the fact that everyone is lazy? Aren't there some stereotypes from Speedy Gonzalez cartoons you could throw in there too? One could take apart Peretz's stereotypes, but why bother. He's a racist, but a rich racist who owns what used to be one of America's greatest progressive magazines, so he has a soapbox from which to spout hate.

H/t to Lindsay

Peretz

I had to steal this awesome bit from Cogitamus. This is from a 1976 story about Peretz taking over The New Republic.

Martin Peretz, a very wealthy young man who has used his money sometimes wisely and always enthusiastically but not always with satisfying results in politics, contributed to the last campaign of Senator Ralph Yarborough. Yarborough had courageously tried to be an authentic liberal all his life, but because the effort had had to be made within the twisted and oppressive confines of Texas politics, he had himself become somewhat twisted and paranoic. He hated intensely and he admired intensely; after receiving his money from Peretz and talking with him for a while, over beers, Yarborough slammed an arm around his new patron's shoulder and expressed his admiration: "Marty, I like you. I like you lots. Your motivations in politics are the same as mine -- spite and revenge."

That is hilarious. And so so true.

Peretz Just Can't Resist

Marty Peretz, no doubt vacationing in Paris on the dime of his heiress wife, just can't resist a jab at Muslims:

"To be sure, I did not go the banlieues where the vast numbers of Muslims, mostly North African Arabs, have concentrated. Paris center is a segregated city. You have to go far beyond the boulevards of Baron Haussmann even to notice the people who have transformed French society for the worse and stimulated its politics to the good."

It gets even better. When fantasizing about Muslim women, he notes:

"They wore make-up including lip liner and provocative lines around their eyes; their hair had been to a hairdresser at least as expensive as John Edwards."



Zing!!! A gratuitous shot at John Edwards too!

How in the world did this guy get to run (into the ground) a major magazine?