{"id":8148,"date":"2006-08-08T12:30:14","date_gmt":"2006-08-08T16:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8148.html"},"modified":"2006-08-08T12:30:14","modified_gmt":"2006-08-08T16:30:14","slug":"lanny-davis-odd-harangue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/lanny-davis-odd-harangue\/","title":{"rendered":"Lanny Davis’ odd harangue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, TNR’s Martin Peretz<\/a> took to the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page to highlight his support for Joe Lieberman and his disgust for Ned Lamont and his supporters. Today, it was Lanny Davis’ turn<\/a>. The headline captured the tone nicely, “Liberal McCarthyism.”<\/p>\n

Mr. Lamont and all other liberal Democrats should remember the McCarthy era and not fall into the trap of the hypocrisy of the double standard — that it’s not<\/i> OK when Ann Coulter dispenses her venomous hatred, but it is OK when our side’s versions of Ann Coulter do.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s one of the odder arguments I’ve seen in the Lieberman-Lamont dust-up so far. To prove his point, vague though it may be, Davis suggests that some Bush critics and opponents of the war — get this — sometimes write angry remarks in blog comment sections. A few even write irate emails, sometimes with capital letters.<\/p>\n

In Davis’ mind, these random and unknown liberals are analogous to “the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Michael Savage.” Indeed, as far as Davis is concerned, it’s proof that the left is not only intolerant, but even engaged in some kind of modern-day McCarthyism.<\/p>\n

I know; I don’t understand it either.
\n<\/p>\n

I came to believe that we liberals couldn’t possibly be so intolerant and hateful, because our ideology was famous for ACLU-type commitments to free speech, dissent and, especially, tolerance for those who differed with us. And in recent years–with the deadly combination of sanctimony and vitriol displayed by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Michael Savage–I held on to the view that the left was inherently more tolerant and less hateful than the right.<\/p>\n

Now, in the closing days of the Lieberman primary campaign, I have reluctantly concluded that I was wrong.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

First, it’s hardly groundbreaking news that there are, on occasion, angry liberals who share their thoughts in print.<\/p>\n

Second, it’s hard to argue with a straight face that someone that no one’s ever heard of who left a comment on a Kos thread is the moral and political equivalent of Coulter or Limbaugh.<\/p>\n

Third, Davis blasts “liberal bloggers” — but doesn’t actually mention any.<\/p>\n

And fourth, if someone who purports to be a liberal Democrat wants to have an impact on the progressive discourse, turning to the Wall Street Journal editorial page to equate the left with Joe McCarthy probably isn’t the most effective strategy. Just a thought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, TNR’s Martin Peretz took to the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page to highlight his support for Joe Lieberman and his disgust for Ned Lamont and his supporters. Today, it was Lanny Davis’ turn. The headline captured the tone nicely, “Liberal McCarthyism.” Mr. Lamont and all other liberal Democrats should remember the McCarthy era and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8148\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}