The ultimate in blame-flinging
TIME Magazine's Joe Klein recently wrote an article decrying the Far Left Blogosphere's attempts to shout him down over another article he'd written.
A strange thing happened to me the day the House of Representatives voted to pass the Iraq-war-funding bill. Congresswoman Jane Harman of California called as the debate was taking place. "Look, I would love to have cast a vote against Bush on this," she told me. "We need a new strategy, and I hope we can force one in September. But I flew into Baghdad [with 150 young soldiers recently]. To vote against this bill was to vote against giving them the equipment... they need. I couldn't do that." I posted what Harman said on Swampland, the political blog at Time.com, along with my opinion that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had changed their positions and voted against the funding for the worst possible reason: presidential politics.
And then Harman changed her position. After we spoke, she voted against the funding. The next day, I was blasted by a number of left-wing bloggers: Klein screwed up! I had quoted Harman in the past tense—common usage for politicians who know their words will appear after a vote takes place. That was sloppy and... suspicious! Proof that you just can't trust the mainstream media.
He was vilified by the Left's piranhas for misquoting Harman and misrepresenting her vote. Reckless? Yes, but understandable. And Klein calls a spade a spade and fights back:
But the smart stuff is being drowned out by a fierce, bullying, often witless tone of intolerance that has overtaken the left-wing sector of the blogosphere. Anyone who doesn't move in lockstep with the most extreme voices is savaged and ridiculed—especially people like me who often agree with the liberal position but sometimes disagree and are therefore considered traitorously unreliable.
But, aye, here's the rub: Klein blames the Left's bilious attack on an overall atmosphere of Lefty intolerance on right-wing pundits!
...the left-liberals in the blogosphere are merely aping the odious, disdainful—and politically successful—tone that right-wing radio talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh pioneered... And that is precisely the danger here. Fury begets fury. Poison from the right-wing talk shows seeped into the Republican Party's bloodstream and sent that party off the deep end. Limbaugh's show—where Dick Cheney frequently expatiates—has become the voice of the Republican establishment. The same could happen to the Democrats.
Moonbats and general lefty lunatics are that way... because the Republicans made them that way? Klein gets flamed by the Left for his reportage and he blames the Right? Hilarious, what chutzpah. Nope, couldn't possibly be the lefties who are crazy. It's the righties who are to blame for the level of bilious rhetoric in America. Blame Rush Limbaugh and the current administration for Air America, Daily Kos, and the DU. If those on the right weren't so horrible then there wouldn't have been such a backlash. And that's the climate in which Joe Klein writes...?
Talk about denial.