Detroit News writer devotes four paragraphs of insults to bashing incivility

by: Eric B.

Wed Aug 01, 2012 at 15:23:34 PM EDT

Jeffrey Hadden, deputy editorial page editor of the Detroit News, throws a hissy fit in Henry Payne’s Museum of Half-Formed Thoughts.

Now comes the disgusting part. Some guy who runs a blog called Michigan Liberal used the news of Camp's cancer to try and score political points , musing that Dow Chemical of Midland emits dioxins which cause this form of cancer and adding that Camp is a "fervent supporter of repealing 'Obamacare' which would have guaranteed access to health care for sufferers of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma who aren't lucky enough to have the health care coverage of a sitting U.S. Congressperson."

It's hard to beat this post for sheer rancid bile and spite. The fact that a human being has cancer is an occasion for political talking points? Really?

He devotes four paragraphs to insults and name calling (his post about incivility is about six times longer than the sentence of two devoted to the matter here, and contrary to his claim that once language wishing well for Dave Camp’s health was gotten past, there wasn’t much tap dancing on his still-warm corpse but a matter-of-fact exposition of his track record). That’s four paragraphs of personal attacks … all in the name of denouncing incivility.

A few pertinent facts:

1. I’ve never in my life claimed to be a civil person, and I’ve never called for “greater civility” in political discourse or whatever Jeffrey Hadden is on about here. In fact, I either ignore or ridicule them, since they are invariably just one person trying to tell everyone else what they can talk about or how to do it. Case in point, Jeffrey Hadden’s post. By the way, one more insult … assuming that in the past I’ve called for “greater civility” and then ascribing my failure to live up to standards I’ve never set to all liberals (by the way, I don’t think Jeffrey Hadden actually knows what a liberal is). What an asshole.

2. It’s not good news that Dave Camp has a treatable form of cancer. Cancer is never good news, even if it is treatable. Dave Camp’s good fortune is having the health care he does, which provided the program of aggressive screenings that caught his cancer early on. That’s good fortune, by the way, that most liberals would like to see shared with everyone.

3. Dave Camp voted against helping to make that happen. He’s also joined his caucus in voting to repeal health care reform more than 30 times, and have offered as a replacement nothing. They’ve done that because they know there’s no chance in seeing a repeal become law. In other words, Dave Camp and the rest of the Republican Party are playing political games with the health care of cancer sufferers around the country who up until two years ago could be denied coverage or dropped because the insurance company didn’t want to pay for them to get well. Comparing the two in terms of civility is like comparing the severity between spitting in ones face and burning down someone else’s house.

4. Dave Camp is from Midland, home of Dow Chemical’s headquarters. For more than 20 years now, Dow Chemical has been embroiled in controversy over whether it knowingly exposed the public to dioxin, a known carcinogen and leading documented cause of the sort of cancer that Dave Camp has developed. Over that period of time, the company has been shielded from accountability by its political connections, which include the names Bill Schuette, Jennifer Granholm, and – yes – Dave Camp.

The idea that this isn’t relevant when his job intersects, even tragically, with his personal life is utter poppycock. No decent journalist would ever say that (Rush Limbaugh’s history of bashing drug users was certainly relevant when his drug addiction – as deadly and health threatening a problem as is cancer – was made public). Then again, Jeffrey Hadden works on the editorial page for the Detroit News, so there is that.

The larger point, however, is that I assume all of us wish Dave Camp and speedy and full recovery (Jeffrey Hadden appears to think expressions like this are some kind of dodge intended to let you get away with saying horrible things about others). I wish that because I wish it for everyone in general. I don't begrudge him his good fortune in his health care coverage, just as I assume most people reading this feel the same. His good fortune comes with a responsibility to see it extended as much as can be done to everyone else, and that certainly now includes people who have difficulty getting and affording treatment from the same disease for which he will almost certainly be successfully treated.