The quickest way to get the liberal media to pay
attention to you is to claim to be a Republican who
hates Republicans. It's an almost infallible public
relations strategy that of late has worked well for
"Republican"
Monica Green [0].
It's also done
wonders for "lifelong Republican [1]" Henry A.
Lowenstein, who has managed to get 20 different letters
published in the New York Times since 2003, a remarkable
feat when you consider that the Times (by its own
admission) receives around 1,000 letters a day and
prints only 15 on its letters page. That means the odds
of the average liberal person (the paper freely
admits [2] it favors left-wing letter writers)
getting his or her letter printed are about 1.5 percent.
It's worse when you think of the numbers on a yearly
scale. In the past five years, the Times has received
approximately 1.8 million letters. It's printed 20 of
Lowenstein's.
Remarkable really. But not really all that surprising
when you consider the Times's history of quoting people
like Greg Packer [3], a liberal New Yorker
obsessed with getting press about any topic under the
sun.
Back to Lowenstein though. What sorts of things does
"life-long" Republican say anyway? Let's take a look.
- From today's edition: "We have allowed this
administration to lie, cheat and break the law, and
to break its sacred oath to uphold and defend the
Constitution."
- May 26, 2003 [4]: "The decline of the
dollar is a sign of what may come if we allow the
folly of tax cuts when what we really need is a huge
influx of capital and a shrinking of our trade
deficits."
- February 26, 2004 [5]: "John Kerry is no
'Massachusetts liberal' and no Michael Dukakis. John
Kerry is Karl Rove's worst nightmare: a candidate
who can go eye to eye with the president on foreign
policy and terrorism, and whose record on health
care, the environment and jobs is exemplary."
- August 18, 2005 [6]: "The Bush
administration's domestic plan is to make sure that
every worthwhile, successful and fair entitlement
program is eliminated. The administration's
constituents, the super rich, do not need or want
these programs."
Sounds like a typical Republican to me. Lowenstein's
Republican credentials are about as real as the "Lovenstein
Institute [7]" hoax which tricked gullible liberals
into believing that Republican presidents have far lower
IQs than Democratic ones.
Update 13:46. Via Freeper Brad from Tennessee,
here's a look at the political contributions [8]
of a New Yorker named Henry A. Lowenstein. Seems likely
this is the same guy. You can't help but notice that he
only gives to Democrats, quite a feat for someone who
claims he is a Republican at heart.
Update 13:59. Jonah Golberg [9] at NRO
writes: "I am amazed how many emails I get —
particularly to my syndicated column address — where the
reader insists that he's a lifelong Republican and/or
conservative and that I should be ashamed for not
supporting [insert Democratic cause du jure]. Sometimes
there's almost the feel of a form letter to them."
Update 16:09. Lowenstein has always been a
liberal according to a tipster:
I was sadly on his e-mail list and became the
weekly recipient of many letters to the editor at
the Times, many of them ending up published.
I can verify that this a--clown is NO REPUBLICAN
and to my knowledge, never has been. He is an awoved
liberal and anyone who knows him personally knows
this...I finally had to block him from my e-mail
list because I was tired of his rants.
This guy is a liberal....HUGE liberal.....I wish
I had saved his crazy e-mails....
Update 17:20. Erick Erickson [10]: "We
should all try this, just as a test. We should all write
about how we are lifelong Republicans who hate Chimpy
McBushhitler Halliburton and see how many of our letters
get printed. If you don't want to bash Bush, bash Matt
and Newsbusters for daring to question the Grey Lady's
integrity! I bet they'll print that one."