Props to Richard Cohen for verbing:
>Kucinich is an odd guy for whom the killer appellation “perennial presidential candidate” is lethally applied. But he is on to something here. It is easy enough to ad hominize him to the margins — ya know, the skinny guy among the “real” presidential candidates — but at a given moment, and this is one, he’s the only one on that stage who articulates a genuine sense of betrayal. He is not out merely to win the nomination but to hold the Bush administration — particularly Cheney — accountable. In this he will fail. What Cheney has done is not impeachable. It is merely unforgivable.
Other than the “skinny guy” comment, however, it’s not really ad hominem. The observation about Kucinich is that he won’t get anywhere with his charges. Why should that be a surprise? Cohen has proclaimed what Cheney has done as unimpeachable.
I thought that was a pretty fair Cohen piece. I think you may have slightly misread the ad hominize part, though. (Though, that IS a great verbing). He only meant to give one example of a Kucinich ad hominem (the glasses)–there’s a “but” after those parenthetical em dashes.
Regardless, why pick on his declaration of Cheney’s unimpeachability? Though he doesn’t really argue for it, it seems a pretty safe assumption that the bill won’t pass, nor is it intended to.
I didn’t claim it was a bad piece. But I didn’t endorse it either. His example of a Kucinich ad hominem, however, doesn’t turn out to be ad hominem. Merely a mean thing to say. As far as Cheney actually not having done anything impeachable, again, nothing he says establishes that. Kucinich obviously won’t get anywhere, but that’s a separate matter from the merit of the charges.
OK, re the ad hominem, I guess I read you wrong (and still am… “other than….” seems to admit the skinny guy comment as the sole example). If you are disputing the ad hominem-ness of the example, then I disagree. Calling him “the skinny guy” plays to Kucinich’s vegan-ness and weak liberalness in general. More directly to the point of the ad hominem nature of the comment, it’s dismissive of his argument. “Skinny” has got rhetorical appeal when Obama applies it to himself, but if levied at Kucinich, I think it plays against his credibility as a “real” candidate.
If that’s not “ad hominizing” someone, what is?
Nice moniker Database. I see what you mean. I think you’re right that there’s an ad hominem down there somewhere. Only here it’s just an insult. Kucinich is skinny and a vegan! Ha ha. And I can see how you get this from the “other than” comment. I meant to leave open the vaguely ad hominemness of the remark (because I thought “ad hominize” was such cool verbing).