If Charleton Heston represented the best of my parents generation, Lieutenant Colonel North represents....what?
On the one hand, he's plenty smart, and used to being disliked; he's written books, hosted TV shows and is one of the go-to military experts for Fox News. On the other, he's Oliver North, a sneak who colluded with Manuel Noriega, got caught, was tried and convicted -- and then the prosecution turned out to have not been sufficiently careful to distinguish between testimony for which he had been granted immunity and non-immune evidence, and who (including the jury) saw what when and hey-la, LtCol North was acquitted on appeal, thanks to the efforts of the ACLU. On the other other hand, his military record as a leader of men, in combat and the classroom, looks very good indeed.
Tam sees this development as NRA nailing their SoCon flag to the standard -- but that was the case before his election, too.
So NRA's got a media-savvy President with high name recognition, who most of the media already didn't like and who is used to facing hostile interviewers: it could have been much worse, some milquetoast or off-kilter firebrand (I'm not saying the name "Nugent" but when you think of self-igniting dumpster fires...) and it may turn out pretty good.
But going to wait and see.
Remember that IranContra took place 1987, which means that beyond a fleeting reference in high school history, for anyone under the age of 40 or so, Oliver North is best known as a Fox pundit.
ReplyDeleteYep. and a marine hero to boot. Just goes to show how you can be re-branded into something good even if you did not do anything really memorable other that get caught.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand he might get them off the side lines and turn the NRA into the big gorilla the left thinks it is. Maybe not. but we can hope.
The worst thing about North: In that Iran-Contra "arms for hostages" deal, we didn't get any hostages released. Either North didn't notice that we were being cheated for years, or didn't care.
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