I’m not really all that familiar with who’s who in American politics, nor do I really wish to be. When I saw somebody post a video clip on Facebook of a woman with a name I didn’t recognise saying that Mao Tse Tung is one of her favourite political philosophers, I initially thought “So what? Some people admire crazy communists who were responsible for millions of deaths. Who is Anita Dunn that anybody should care?”
Boy do I have a red face now. Anita Dunn was (is? I’m not even sure) the interim White House Communications Director. That’s right, the White House. Yes, the one in America.
The rumour is that Ms Dunn has now said that she was just joking – that she did not actually mean to say anything positive about mao at all, but was mimicking an old Lee Atwater schtick. Nuh uh. Nobody’s buying. Mao was clearly referred to as a favourite political philosopher so that Dunn could go on to explain how good some of his advice was. Likewise, she wasn’t joking about Mother Teresa.
Some light viewing on Chairman Mao:
karen
hah when i was there on national day there was no escaping his picture.. i cant believe how much he still has a grip on the place
Dan
Completely in accord with the pattern of associations with far left radicals in this administration. Had George Bush been even slightly associated with the John Birch Society or other radical right groups, it would have been all over the news. But skeletons like this crawl out of the administration’s closet on almost a weekly basis, and there is barely a peep in the news. It is truly surreal.