Michael Medved is not so wrong about Ron Paul

 Ron Paul has said many things about Israel — there’s a story in the totality of his approach.

Journalists, by necessity, need to be holistic in covering such matters.

It’s different for opiners and politicians. Rhetoric and argument inevitably are about picking and choosing, and may conventionally  be based on a handful of statements or even a single statement.

So when Michael Medved says he wants Ron Paul to make it clear he is not "bitterly anti-Israel," it is enough for him — as an opinion columnist — to have underpinning his plea selective evidence, as long as it is not ripped from context.

Andrew Sullivan thinks "bitterly anti-Israel," though, is not fair, saying Paul wants only a "healthy" U.S. relationship with the country, one that is absent assistance.

Aside from the fact that this, precisely, is what Medved counsels Paul to recommend, is it so unfair for an opinion columnist to describe as "bitterly anti-Israel" a man who likened the country to Nazi Germany in an interview with Iran’s state-run TV?

Additionally, Sullivan says Paul has described  the racist newsletters published decades ago as a "flaw in his record and character." The record part, I’ve heard about — but when did Paul ever suggest his character was flawed?

UPDATE: A friend-o-the-blog* sends in this grab from Paul’s interview recently on ABC’s This Week to explain the "character flaw" reference:

I don’t think anybody in the world has been perfect on management, everybody that’s ever worked for them. So, yes, it’s — it’s — it’s a flaw. But I think it’s a human flaw. And I think it is probably shared by a lot more people than myself, because, you know, when you have hundreds of people over the years that have worked for you, and it’s happened even in big corporations or big newspapers or on TV stations, you can’t monitor — every once in a while, somebody on a TV station will say something, but as the owner and (inaudible) you know, get blamed for what the person says. So, no, you can’t monitor every single thing, but it is a flaw. And, of course, I — I admit that I’m an imperfect person and — and didn’t monitor that as well. But to — to paint my whole life on that is a gross distortion, because we have to remember, I didn’t write them, I didn’t see them before that, and I have disavowed them. That to me is the most important thing. 

*Friends-o-the-blog send in tips and corrections. If they’re used, I treat friends-of-the-blog to frozen custards at Dickie’s on 17th and I next time they’re in the vicinity.