Moron the Lefty BloggersGlenn Greenwald is now posting over at Crooks & Liars in addition to his own blog, which raises the obvious question: Which is he, a crook or a liar?
He
takes a look at the New York Times'
book review of Kos and Armstrong's book,
Storming the Gates.
The review is surprisingly positive:
Much of the authors' criticism of the party establishment is dead-on. They rail against political consultants who take 15 percent commissions on media buys while giving bad advice. They are especially incensed by what they see as the self-defeating role of special interests, notably Naral Pro-Choice America's decision to endorse Senator Lincoln Chafee, a Rhode Island Republican, over two pro-abortion-rights Democrats. If Mr. Chafee wins, he could ensure that the Republican Party, which has an aggressive anti-abortion agenda, keeps control of the Senate.Greenwald's take is interesting, if only because it undercuts much of his supposed
raison d'etre. Greenwald proclaims himself to be largely conservative on a lot of issues, just another Republican turned off by Bush. And yet, if you read his Crooks & Liars post, it's quite apparent that he's rooting for the Democrats, and not just Democrat moderates, but the darlings of the netkooks:
Bush followers, along with their media allies, recognize the lurking power of the anti-Bush component of the blogosphere and -- for that very reason -- have been expending considerable efforts recently to demonize it as nothing but fringe, extremist lunatics who are political poison. Rather than combat that demonization, national Democrats -- as usual -- have meekly acquiesced to it -- even internalized it -- and are now intimidated to go anywhere near one of the very few vibrant, living and breathing instruments of political activism available to them.
They don't want to go anywhere near the citizen activism in the blogosphere because Tim Russert and Chris Matthews will no longer think they're a moderate, serious, responsible Democrat, and Republicans might accuse them of being an extremist or a liberal. They'd prefer to avoid that disapproval even it means losing (as it usually does), than be criticized and win. The reason they run away from their own allies in the blogosphere is the same reason they so often run away from taking a real stand against the Bush Administration -- it's because they are petrified that the establishment media and even Republicans will criticize them as being too combative, too liberal, extremist, etc.You know, the weird thing about this is you sense that Greenwald's far too smart to believe the stupid things he writes. Does he really believe that the netkooks like Kos and (to a lesser degree) Armstrong aren't toxic? Does he really think that the Democrats would start cruising to victory if they bashed Bush with the abandon of an Atrios or a Firedoglake? Does he really think that the Democrats are cowed by Tim Russert and Chris Matthews?
My sense of things remains the same. The Left-wing blogosphere is pulling the Democrats to the Left, while the Right-wing blogosphere is pulling the Republicans to the center. That is a recipe for long-term disaster for the Democrats. They may survive, provided the administration continues to make mistakes. But if there is a significant improvement in the situation in Iraq, if the economy continues to hum along, if Cindy Sheehan remains the face of the antiwar movement, we could be seeing the last few years of the Democrats.
