Politics & Power Quote by Sidney Blumenthal

Blumenthal isn’t arguing the terrorism charge on the merits so much as stripping it of legitimacy by reclassifying it as theater. “Entirely politically inspired” is the tell: he frames the attack as an artifact of partisan machinery, not an organic response to evidence. That choice of language pulls the reader away from the headline allegation and toward the motive behind it, making intent the real subject. It’s an old political move, but it works because it invites a simpler, more emotionally satisfying conclusion: you’re not confused by messy facts; you’re being manipulated.

The specificity of “the right-wing of the Republicans” is also doing tactical work. It narrows culpability to a faction, implying extremism and agenda-driven behavior, while leaving room for “reasonable” Republicans to be implicitly exonerated. That’s coalition-conscious rhetoric: condemn the spear tip, not the whole spear, and you might peel off moderates or at least shame them into distancing themselves.

Then there’s the absolutism: “no basis in fact whatsoever.” As a journalistic voice, Blumenthal is borrowing the authority of verification, but he’s using the cadences of a political surrogate. The phrase is less about forensic refutation than about building a bright line for loyalists: this isn’t a debate, it’s a smear. In the Clinton-era ecosystem of cable news, opposition research, and scandal-as-content, that’s the point. He’s trying to move the story from “Did she?” to “Why are they doing this again?” and to preempt the slow drip of insinuation by calling the whole operation what he believes it is: a strategy, not a finding.