How Republicans Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Frogs

Republicans are piling onto Emperor Obama for his failure to attended the gathering of world “leaders” in a show of anti-Muslim unity Sunday in Paris. Media outlets were filled with the imagery of French President François Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Israeli Megalomaniac Benjamin “Bibi” Netenyahu and various and sundry other human rights abusers and war criminals marching with linked arms in front of the procession. It was however all staged as has been reported by a number of independent websites including Liberty Blitzkrieg.

In a piece entitled “NOUS SOMME HYPOCRITES – Authoritarian, Anti-Free Speech Politicians Pose for Staged Photo Op in Paris” Michael Krieger nails it:

 As I was wrapping up my travels in Asia, an extremely sad event unfolded in Paris during which 12 people were murdered at the office of satire magazine Charlie Hebdo. Just four days later, another sad and pathetic event occurred. A swarm of politicians, many of whom are professional authoritarians, shamelessly descended onto the streets of Paris to “join millions of protesters” in a rally for free speech and solidarity with the victims of the barbaric attack.

As is typically the case, mainstream media stories were filled with powerful images of these political hacks marching arm in arm; faces austere, defiantly standing their ground on behalf of freedom and liberty the world over. You have doubtlessly seen many variations of the following:

 

Such images were commingled with photos of the real march, which was estimated to include an incredible 3.7 million people.

Such images can bring a tear to the eye of even the most hardened cynic. Politicians and citizens united for a noble cause! There’s just one minor problem. As the Huffington Post and Independent both noted, this is what the politicians’ march actually looked like:

While this pathetic and shameless photo op is embarrassing enough, what’s far more concerning and downright hypocritical is the fact that many of the participants are active authoritarians in their home countries.

Even less surprising that the whole “unity” scam was yet another political dog and pony show is how many of the Republicans have now learned to love the French, a people who normally are vilified by party hacks. In excerpting from the smarmy Dana Milbanks in his Washington Post column entitled “Republicans’ inconsistent attacks on Obama’s Paris response”:

A decade ago, Republicans in Congress were renaming French fries “freedom fries” and French toast “freedom toast” because of that country’s refusal to support the Iraq war. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld belittled the “old Europe” French, President George W. Bush mocked an American reporter for speaking French to the French president, and conservative critics called the French “weasels,” “appeasers” and worse. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, was ridiculed by the Bush administration for being “too French” and looking French, and his fluency in French was a liability in the campaign.

And now, that very same Monsieur Kerry, the secretary of state, and his boss, President Obama, are being condemned by conservatives for . . . not being nice enough to the French.

Quelle horreur!

The cause célèbre this time is the failure of the Obama administration to send anybody of higher rank than the U.S. ambassador to attend Sunday’s march in Paris showing solidarity against the terrorists.

“Our president should have been there, because we must never hesitate to stand with our allies,” proclaimed Sen. Ted Cruz, the Republican agent provocateur from Texas.

Fox News’s Greta van Susteren said the absence was “embarrassing” and that “Obama should not have snubbed Paris.”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) — like Cruz a would-be presidential contender — declared it “a mistake not to send someone.” (For the record, neither Cruz nor Rubio attended the march.)

The grandstanding Cruz who passes himself off as a devout Christian should be asked whether he is down with the cover image from Charlie Hebdo that shows his lord and savior engaging an anal sex. While he is at it he can also weigh in on the “standing with our allies” – translation: Netanyahu – remark since the cat is now out of the bag that the entire world leader portion of the marched was yet another political farce. Nothing translates better than hypocrisy.