2024 Stephen Hayes Is Now Fully 2016 Matthew Dowd

Most readers are, I am sure, familiar with the arc of Mr. Hayes' career.  For those few who are not, here's a quick summary.  From Wikipedia:

In 2004, Gideon Rose, editor of Foreign Affairs, described Hayes as "most indefatigable proponent of the Iraq-Al Qaeda link outside the [George W. Bush] administration."[11] In 2008, Spencer Ackerman characterized Hayes as one of the most effective amplifiers of the Bush administration's Iraq War claims about an Iraq-Al Qaeda link.[12] Inquiries into the Hussein-Al Qaeda link have concluded that there was no link.[12] In 2004, the 9/11 Commission concluded there were "no collaborative operational ties."[12]

So, big Iraq War pimp was our Mr. Hayes.  And over in the Better Universe, such toxic creatures would've had their careers shoveled into the ground, covered in quicklime, and they would spent the rest of their lives atoning for their sins swabbing out bedpans at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

But we don't live in the Better Universe.  Over in our universe, all those dozens (hundreds?) of staunch Conservative Iraq War pimps in the media, who made such a picnic out of slagging Liberal Iraq War critics as American-hating, terrorist-loving scum?  They all just skated.  None of them lost a job or missed a meal, because (say it with me kids)  There is a Club, and you and I are not in it.  So when the Iraq War went tits up, proving the critics right, followed by the de facto collapse of the Bush administration due to incompetence, corruption and hubris...nothing happened.  All the Bush administration's most ardent flaks, and all of their mainstream media collaborators. just shrugged it off and moved on to the next thing.    

And for Mr. Hayes, the next thing was:

...the New York Post, Washington Times, Salon.com, National Review, and Reason. He has been a commentator on CNN, The McLaughlin Group, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, CNBC, and C-SPAN.

Because nothing matters and, for these people, there are never any consequences.  

Hayes took over The Weekly Standard for awhile, until the Trump team killed it.  Then he lingered far, far too long at Fox News for anyone with any sense of decency.  Then, since the wingnut welfare trough never goes dry and there is always funding available for these goofs to start their   next thing, he "along with Jonah Goldberg and Toby Stock, formed the conservative media company, The Dispatch."

Hayes has also been hired by MSNBC as a "contributor across all our platforms".

Because nothing matters and, for these people, there are never any consequences.  

Anyhoo, this is the fruit of Mr. Hayes' labors this week: a long and thoroughly perverse attempt to perform CPR on the rotting corpse of the Both Sides Do It lie.  

Just the fourth editorial in the 4 1/2 year history of @TheDispatch.

On the awful choices in front of us. https://t.co/9YLpSJrfnX

— Stephen Hayes (@stephenfhayes) March 8, 2024

Because nothing matters and, for these people, there are never any consequences.  

Speaking of which, I believe I promised you soupcon of 2016 Matthew Dowd, who longtime readers know, has long since nuked his entire Twitter archive in a mostly-successful attempt to wipe from the mind of man his long and dishonorable term as ABC News' chief political analyst.  But since I was writing about Mr. Dowd in real-time back then, a fair sized plain-text record of his contemptible behavior from those years still exists in my archives.

So here you go.

So how has Mr. Dowd managed to pass through the MSNBC Reputation Rehab Laundry, reinvent himself yet again, dodge any meaningful consequences for his very-recent history and land yet another teevee opinion-having gig?

Because, as I may have mentioned, nothing matters and, for these people, there are never any consequences.

I Am The Liberal Media