Blogometer PM Extra
BLOGGER VS. BLOGGER: Making Friends And Influencing People
Ed Kilgore at New Donkey bemoans a "toxic little note" he recently recieved from populist David Sirota following Kilgore's recent defense of the DLC. Kilgore admits his post was "written in a tone of bored sarcasm" but believes Sirota was over the top in calling Kiglgore a liar.
Kilgore writes: "What's hilarious is that the "lie" David accuses me of comes from my suggestion that maybe the DLC isn't the political behemoth its more pnoid critics always assume it to be. Why is that so offensive to Sirota? Maybe because if the DLC is not the ultimate Giant, then David Sirota ain't no giant-killer, either."
Kilgore later fulminates on Sirota's place in the larger progressive movement: "Lots of bloggers I talk with have the same private opinion of David Sirota's tactics as I do, but think he's useful to The Cause, precisely because he matches the single-minded energy and "take no prisoners" style of bloggers and pundits on the Right. ... If that's so; if Sirota's type of fulmination actually contributes to the goal of expelling the venal GOP gang that's running our country right now, then I suppose the offense caused by his chronic character attacks on fellow Democrats is just acceptable collateral damage. But I really don't see that calling people like me...liars serves any purpose other than to start stupid fights that aggrandize Sirota's self-image as a brave truth-teller fighting the godless and omnipotent Washington Establishment. I wish some of his friends who find his talent for invective so useful would have a private word to him now and then and suggest there are a few lines in intra-party debate that should not be crossed."
Sirota responds unapologetically at The Huffington Post: "Of course, all of this ultra-personal nastiness coming from Kilgore is a very tired and frankly ineffective distraction technique that insults readers' intelligence. The heart of the matter is that the DLC has been bullying progressives around for years - even, including bullying its own original members like Al Gore when they thought he was straying too far from the corporate line. When this indisputable reality is brought up and factually substantiated, the DLC has no answer."
Sirota goes on: "I'm not going to change my tone, because I'm not going to play Washington's rhetorically acrobatic game - a game that more and more Americans know is a scam. As Rolling Stone noted in its recent article, Washington insiders like Ed Kilgore and the DLC get all hot and bothered by passion, outrage and most of all idealism. They are afraid of actual emotion, and the justifiable anger that Americans throughout the heartland feel right now at a government that has sold them out. They are similarly afraid of people who tell the blunt truth. Why? Because insiders in Washington aren't outraged and they don't want the truth out there - they are very comfortably enjoying the status quo. So they throw out superheated red herrings attacking George McGovern, attacking truthtellers, attacking the netroots - and above all else, attacking the very concept that ordinary people should have a say over a political process we are supposed to own. What they want, in short, is for politics to continue on as the exclusive property of the elite, whereby bloodless, money-drenched automatons in Congress obediently carry out the wishes of their corporate puppetmasters."
