Domenech’s colorful background

March 23, 2006

The controversy surrounding the Washington Post hiring Republican Ben Domenech to be a resident blogger is fueled, in large part, by the fact that the WaPo is yielding to conservative complaints and trying to create an unnecessary “balance” between a far-right activist and a liberal that doesn’t exist.

A secondary element of the uproar, however, is not just that the Post has hired a far-right blogger, but which far-right blogger.

There are conservatives with blogs who are serious people. They have years of professional experience in journalism and politics. Their worldview is on the right, but they’re serious about policy and issues, whether I agree with their work or not.

Domenech, 24, was tapped for this highly-prestigious position despite not fitting this mold at all. Media Matters has helped summarize many of Domenech’s “greatest hits.”

* Domenech, responding to James Dobson’s comparison of the Supreme Court to the KKK, said Dobson didn’t go far enough. Domenech went even further, writing that that “[t]he worst black-robed men and women are worse then [sic] the KKK.” He also asked rhetorically: “In the past 30 years, how many innocent lives has the KKK ended? How about the Judiciary?”

* Domenech called Coretta Scott King “a communist.”

* Domenech harshly criticized his now-colleague Dan Froomkin, agreeing with a commenter who called Froomkin “an embarrassment to the saner heads at the paper.”

* Domenech posted portions of an article by First Things magazine editor-in-chief Richard John Neuhaus, in which Neuhaus cited the “astonishingly inordinate incidence of crimes committed by young male blacks and the equally inordinate incidence of abortions procured by black women,” adding that “[i]t just happens that killing black babies has the happy result of reducing crime.”

* Domenech has written posts calling all war protests “horrendous and vile” and hailing the moral superiority of Claude Allen, the Bush aide recently arrested for shoplifting.

Even if we put aside the completely legitimate question of why the Post feels it’s necessary to add a right-winger to their blog stable, why would the Post want to be associated with Domenech?

My theory: the evil liberal media is playing a game of let’s-laugh-at-the-deranged-yahoo. I’m having a hard time thinking of somebody who would effectively make the right look worse.

  • If I was the guy who hired Domenech, I’d be upset over the vile stuff Domenech wrote on Red State as “Augustine”. Making the boss look bad is not good, especially when the boss should have known better than to naively take Domenech at face value. I bet Dan Froomkin is now pondering his employment options elsewhere, given how he’s being publically dissed yet again by his own paper.

  • the evil liberal media is playing a game of let’s-laugh-at-the-deranged-yahoo.

    You know, that’s extremely clever. The WaPo isn’t trying to promote bizarre, far-right ideas, it’s trying to expose them as ridiculous by giving Domenech a platform.

    Why didn’t I think of that?

  • Or maybe he’s not that bad…I haven’t read him outside of the excerpts floating around and his three posts at the Post. We’ll see if I’m right.

  • * Domenech called Coretta Scott King “a communist.”

    This kid just HAD to be a member of the Hitler Youth in a previous lifetime…and still thinks he is. Now if only the WaPo will “accidentally” print his editorials on the comics-page….

  • Domenech called Coretta Scott King “a communist.”…

    So, let me get this straight… a guy who runs a blog called “red” America calls someone a Communist… *snark*

  • As I noted in a comment last night Ben wrote for the Flat Hat, the student newspaper at The College of William and Mary. In 1999, his freshman year, he wrote an essay on “Party Guidelines”. Excerpting from it wouldn’t do it justice and it is a little too long to reproduce in full here. Go read it and have a laugh.

  • “[Ben] wrote an essay on “Party Guidelines”. – rege

    This guy is a conservative? He is openly advocating snorting cocaine, for God’s sake!

    I suppose when you are trying to create a majority of “Conservatives” you really have to scrape around. He does seem to share the same “Gentleman Party Boy” mentality of the President, so maybe he is a good example of the ruling conservative clique that dominates the conservative caucus this decade.

    I wonder when the Libertarians and Theocratic Reactionaries are going to get tired of these ‘allies’ of theirs and stop supporting them.

  • “Gentleman Party Boy”: We must rebuild New Orleans!

    Fiscal Conservative: Why when they are sinking into the sea?

    “Gentleman Party Boy”: for the strip joins, drunken parties and flasher spring break girls!

  • This one’s still pretty funny.

    “Claude Allen is as clearcut as a razor’s edge. He’s a stand-up, principled Virginian.”

    http://yourlogohere.blogspot.com/2006/03/meet-ben-domenich.html

    Rege is right, though. The “Party Guidelines” column is pretty good. According to Domenech, it’s not a good party unless there’s “at least” a gram of cocaine present and someone invites George W. Bush over.

  • Perhaps it reflects the regard the Post has for the
    blogosphere in general. Didn’t I read somewhere
    that they think it’s an arena for yahoos to
    excoriate each other?

    I certainly don’t think it’s a clever ruse to expose
    this right wing crazy. The radical right is the
    in thing today. The pundits, press, MSM, Republicans
    and Democrats have not yet caught up with the
    American people, who are resoundingly rejecting
    right wing governance in all the polls, screaming
    out for a change in direction.

  • Rege–

    great find. over at Your Logo Here, we love BenDom. i’ll be sure to add a link. amazing at how the age of 17, BenDom knew so much about “real parties.”

  • I’ll be watching to see if/when the Post, its credibility under daily attack, pulls the plug on this deranged little wanker. It’s sad to see a once-great paper go down the toilet, but as above (Woodward), so below (Ben “goarmy.com” Dom).

  • The odd thing about all this? That “Party Guidelines” thing is actually kind of amusing. If this bozo hadn’t been swayed so easily by GOP spin, maybe he woulda turned into an amusing Bill Simmons type but for like, social events and such.

    But a mind is a terrible thing to waste, and waste it he has.

  • Over at RedStateErick defends Ben. Here is the rousing summation of that defense,

    Facts have never been debate winners among the haters. This is another example. But we on the right? Why are we silent when one of our own is being savagely attacked as a racist, gay, Puerto Rican homophobic plagarizer who sleeps with his mother when not in bed with his dad and Jack Abramofff? Why are we silent? We should not be, even if it costs us to defend Ben. Ben has done more and contributed more to our community than many of us, whether at RedState or elsewhere. We must not stay silent. We must defend our own. We must defend Ben. He has done nothing wrong. Nothing.

    Ben Domenech deserves our full advocacy and defense. He has done nothing wrong and does not deserve urban legends about his wrong doing solely because of the lies of those who are jealous of his success. Should the other side win, they will be emboldened. And should they win, one of our own who has done no wrong will be immeasurable hurt by the hate, lies, and jealousy of those who would just as easily do it to you or me.

    We must defend Ben.

    If find two things interesting in this defense. First it is tribal in nature. His argument is that the liberal tribe will triumph against the conservative tribe should they abandon Ben. Hence, Ben must be defended at any cost. This is a rather immature posture, but this is to be expected since the RedStaters are a bit wet behind the ears. This brings me to the second point. This is in essence the Republican argument for defending Bush. However, the RNC and congressional Republicans don’t have the wet behind the ears defense. We may therefore conclude that the Republican party is the party of arrested development.

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