NYC Letter: Shoe Rebuttal

Day 343 of CHOPE

Before the left discovered civility in public discourse it celebrated the likes of Muntader al-Zaidi.* Mr. al-Zaidi achieved his five or ten minutes of fame by hurling his shoes at the President of the United States, delighting Mr. Bush's critics. He was convicted and sentenced to three years imprisonment, subsequently reduced to one year of which he served nine months -- ample time to qualify him as a martyr of truth to power.

Indignant shoe tossing had a brief vogue, but Mr. al-Zaidi without Mr. Bush was not news and he soon slipped from view. He resurfaced this month, but the press was busy elsewhere

WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

December 4, 2009 (NRO) - A little incident in Paris just now ought to cheer up George W. Bush if he bothers to keep abreast of the news.

Muntader al-Zaidi is the Iraqi journalist who became well-known for throwing a shoe at the president, disrupting a press conference and obliging the president to duck. Al-Zaidi went to prison for some months, but is out now and touring the world, hoping to attract sympathy for the way the law treated him and also to raise money for a charity he has started on behalf of "the victims of the U.S. occupation in Iraq".

At al-Zaidi's own press conference, another Iraqi stood up, and started a speech in Arabic to accuse him of "working for dictatorship in Iraq". Then he shouted:

And here's another shoe!

The Iraqi then threw the shoe and it was Mr. al-Zaidi who was obliged to duck.

ONE MAN'S OPINION
Please Wipe Your Feet Before Rebutting

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* For example, this gleeful dispatch.