A few years ago, Richard Dreyfuss played Dick Cheney in a movie nobody saw. Not that he’s bitter:
CNS News: MSNBC’s Ed Schultz has said of Dick Cheney, “He’s an enemy of the country. In my opinion, Dick Cheney is an enemy of this country. Lord, take him to the promised land, will you?” … Is that something that you think should be rejected by a civil society?
Richard Dreyfuss: No. That’s not uncivil. That’s actually kind of a beautifully phrased way of saying something that could be uncivil. Civility is not not saying negative or harsh things. It is not the absence of critical analysis. It is the manner in which we are sharing this territorial freedom of political discussion. If our discourse is yelled and screamed and interrupted and patronized, that’s uncivil. I don’t care what the issue is, and I don’t care what the people and the players are.
Which is, to phrase something uncivil in a more attractive way, a generous portion of bovine excrement. Wishing somebody dead is not civil, no matter how it’s phrased.
To his credit, Dreyfuss now seems to realize this:
Well done, Mr. Dreyfuss. Now just apologize for The Education of Max Bickford and we’re good.
(Hat tip: Ed Morrissey)