Andrew Sullivan abhors torture. How do I know? His naive plea to George Bush in the current Atlantic magazine tells me so.
But he's pretty much unconcerned about the half-million or so Americans who have died from lack of health insurance since he published Betsy McCaughey's lying screed, "No Exit," in TNR 15 years ago. How do I know? The Daily Dish tells me so.
In "McCaughey and Me," on October 7, Sullivan blogs that "I take full responsibility for being the editor of the magazine that published the piece. I accepted an award for it. I stood behind it."
Then he goes on to say he knew McCaughey's article was bogus but he enjoyed "driving liberals a little bit crazy" in those days. Here's the bottom line for Sullivan, though. "There's one reason the Clinton health care bill failed," he asserts, " and it isn't Betsy McCaughey. It's Hillary Clinton."
I'm glad you had your opportunity to have a little fun with the liberals, Andrew, but let me get this straight. You want the-buck-stops-over-there George Bush to own up to his responsibility for torture, but you plan to wiggle out of your own culpability for denying health care to a half-generation of Americans.
Sorry. There's no exit from this one.