Hurray, everyone! Joe Klein has started blogging! And he’s bravely speaking truth to power bloggers!
I love it! First day of Swampitude and the left-wing blogosphere–which is overpopulated by illiberal leftists and reactionary progressives–is already attacking me: 24 mostly mingy comments about my Left Behind post, many of which seem to be steaming off a post by Greg Sargent, who writes a blog called The Horse’s…Mouth. The illiberal left just hates it when I point out that the Democratic Party’s naivete on national security–and the left wing tendency to assume every U.S. military action abroad is criminal–just aren’t very helpful electorally. The fact that I’ve been opposed to the Iraq war ever since this 2002 article in Slate just makes it all the more aggravating.
Let us pause to note Joe’s steadfast opposition to the war, circa 2003 (via Atrios):
This is a really tough decision. War may well be the right decision at this point. In fact, I think it–it’s–it–it probably is.
How aggravating indeed it must be for Joe, to have his resolute and principled anti-war stance questioned!
But wait — there’s more!
And so a challenge to those who slagged me in their comments. Can you honestly say the following:
Even though I disagree with this escalation, I am hoping that General Petraeus succeeds in calming down Baghdad.
Joe, the “loyalty oath” game is old hat in the blogosphere, and most of us got tired of playing a long time ago. These “do you still beat your wife?” questions say far more about the questioner than his imagined audience. One small bit of advice, though. If you’re going to make an assertion like this …
Listening to the leftists, though, it’s easy to assume that they are rooting for an American failure.
… you need to back it up with, well, actual examples of anyone saying anything remotely like that. Otherwise you can expect more of the contemptuous mockery and “mingy” comments you profess to love so much. Though I have just the teensiest smidgen of doubt about the depth of that love.
Truth be known, right now my money’s on Joe as the next Pundit Most Likely to Pull a Lee Siegel.
(Greg Sargent’s screechy, foaming-at-the-mouth post on Klein is here, but brace yourself before clicking the link — these bloggers are just blast furnaces of rage and bitterness, not to mention incivility! Why, they’re almost as bad as left wing political cartoonists!)