When one's chief character witness is the reigning prince of political shiftiness and sincerity's molestation — I am speaking, of course, of word-smithereener Frank Luntz — then one may consider oneself a victim of ironic justice. Hello Ron Dermer, Israeli ambassador to the United States, whom Luntz has condemned by praising him to the NY Times as "more direct than [other ambassadors], he’s less judicious with his words, but he makes it up with principle."
Remember, Luntz lives in opposite world, every disingenuous opposite day; hence Luntz's attestation to Dermer's high-minded principles is the lowest of recommendations. It turns out that Luntz, who taught The Principles of Underhandedness at the University of Pennsylvania in the early 1990s, was Dermer's mentor — and thereafter his verbally deceitful boss, in the run-up to the Gingrich Revolution of '94.
And that explains how Ambassador Dermer can now so unashamedly say that his current boss, Bibi Netanyahu, never meant "to wade into your political debate or make [his Boehner invite] a partisan issue," or to "be disrespectful" to President Obama. Horseshit, all. It's the Luntzian way.
As the Times puts it, "For those who have tracked Mr. Dermer’s rise," from Republican strategist to Netanyahu henchman, his "maneuvering over the speech appears to be in character" — meaning it lacks it. "He’s a political operative, he’s not really an ambassador," says former U.S. ambassador to Israel, Daniel Kurtzer. "To think about going behind the back of a friendly country’s administration and working out this kind of arrangement with the parliament or the Congress — it’s unheard-of."
Ah, but not in veteran GOP-operative world. There, there are no rules — except the ones the other side must obey. And as for undissembling language? Fuggedaboutit.