Ezra Klein deserves an honorable mention in this rogue's gallery of self-styled 1930s-appeasement look-alikes.Readers should check the original post for context, but Klein's extreme relativism is endlessly infuriating, and, frankly, I plain just don't like the guy. So readers can see my interest in the serious pushback against Klein's attack on Ann Althouse.
It turns out William Jacobson's on the case in his post, "Ezra Klein Smears Ann Althouse:
Ezra Klein, blogger for the "liberal" American Prospect, got caught by Politico coordinating his stories with other liberal bloggers and journalists. Exposed for being a journalistic fraud, Klein needed an enemy. He found Ann Althouse. Althouse, who has a very popular blog, could be considered "conservative" (as in, when a law professor doesn't kneel at the alter of Obama, she is a "conservative").Klein's attack on Althouse is pure "faux" outrage. The guy was raised Jewish but has confessed his agnosticism, and he apparently "hates" anything having to do with organized religion. That's perfectly in keeping with Klein's secular collectivist agenda, but check the comments at Althouse's follow-up post, "''Did Ezra Klein post anti-Semitic comments to set up Ann Althouse?'":
Althouse's crime? She linked to the Politico story in a post at 8:54 a.m. on March 19, 2009 under the title "The Journolist." Althouse's blog gets tons of comments, unlike mine, which only gets a lot of comments when there is an Instalanche. Apparently, some of the comments were hostile to Klein, so Klein decided to take out Althouse by smearing her as an anti-Semite.
Ezra is a hate-monger ... As such, everything is in play. He deserves nothing but contempt. And he certainly does not deserve to be treated fairly.
12 comments:
Ezra Klein sure leaves a fascist stench everywhere he goes. Isn't there a saying somewhere that "Charging Antisemitism is the last refuge of a Jewish scoundrel"? If there isn't, there ought to be.
Thanks for commenting, AST!
I read this and thought you deserved another comment.
I don't see what the big deal about anti-semitism or any other form of racism is. Barack was in a racist cult for twenty years and no one seemed to think it a big deal. Personally, I am a baracist. I have nothing against Barack for the color of his skin but I am developing some resentment towards black folks for the actions of Obama. Is that wrong?
Dear Mr. Douglas: The last paragraph of your post doesn't do justice to you. I didn't know much about Ezra Klein, so I followed your links and read some of his stuff. I'm sorry I did, because it means a trip to the delousing station...I think we agree that Herr Obergruppenfuhrer (in his own zany mind) Klein is a dreadful hog, a 200 proof scoundrel best preserved in a barrel of absinthe. But I very much doubt that "everything is in play." Still less do I think that "he does not deserve to be treated fairly." We live in a nation where the frauds in the national legislature have rammed through a bill with confiscatory taxation aimed at AIG employee bonuses. Such a bill is plainly illegal under the Federal Constitution's bill of attainder provision, yet the masterminds in the House voted for it anyway, howling for blood, blood, get them, get them, kill them etc etc etc...
The connection between this bill and not treating Klein fairly is tenuous, I admit, but it is there. Your paragarph only makes sense if we are in a truly revolutionary time, i.e. Klein's lurid fantasies about himself now have him being the 2009 version of Dr. Goebbels,complete with leading an army of storm troopers to Wisconsin, dragging Althouse out of her house and drowning her in a cheese vat, while The One looks benignly on, saying little because the dam teleprompter is unplugged again and Chris Matthews tells us how his leg is tingling again (I told you Klein's fantasies were lurid) are in danger of becoming true. Are they? I doubt it, and say so, laughing through a megaphone.
Well, Mr. Douglas, how about it? Is Klein 2009's Goebbels? Or is he just a windbag feeling his oats, while considering the belts of those who disagree with him the upper boundary of any politcal argument? You are right to consider him distasteful, but Ann Althouse is strong enough to do her own cussing if need be. I will make you a promise: should Klein ever develop into a menace beyond his own mind, I will join you in breaking into his house and smearing Ben-Gay on his bathroom mirror. That way, when Klein indulges in his favorite sport of kissing his reflection, his lips will become inflamed, and swell to monstrous size. No one will be able to understand him when he goes on television, his ratings will collapse, and the Republic will have averted another danger on the scale of Keith Olbermann.
A little more seriously, I think there is far too much touchiness on the right these days. I refer to such symptoms as calling The One a commie bastard as Rick Ballard, a generally sensible fellow, does in his comments at Tom Maguire's blog. The notion that we are in the End Days and Doom awaits us following The One's machinations, stock up on canned food and buy guns is much too prevalent. The One is in charge, and has the majority to prove it. There's not much to be done until 2010. Why holler doom when laughing is so much easier? To be sure, The One's policy is going to do dreadful execution on this country, and we will pay for these idiotic excesses for years. But again, there's nothing to be done about it. The suckers voted (and in justice to the suckers, I can't see McCain's response to this economic crisis being much better than The One's) and we all must live with this choice. Why not enjoy the idiocies? The worst quacks on the earth are running about, but the suckers are beginning to wise up. The rising success of the Tea Parties is a good answer to Klein and his ill-kempt fantasies. Stick a tube of Ben-Gay away, and await developments. Klein or no Klein, we are in the gaudiest political show since US Grant and should enjoy it instead becoming fruitlessly irate.
Sincerely yours,
Gregory Koster
I've been reading Ezra's stuff for years, and I think he's pretty reasonable as lefty bloggers go. He is also a nice guy and intellectually honest in conversation. You know, when you've written 10,000 posts, there are a few that you probably regret. I know I can say that.
The cliff notes version of Ezra's motivation is this:
He is jealous of Althouse. Pure and simple.
Tiger -
I have not read much of Ezra, so I cannot comment intelligently about his views. However, one thing about your comment struck me. 10,000 posts? How in the world does this guy find the time for that? Or is he being funded by some outside source, so he does not have to spend any time doing the normal activities in life, such as (ahem), earning a living? I am just learning about how the blogoshphere actually operates, so any enlightening commentary on this would be helpful.
Interesting responses. But I would ask that you not stare down at your shoelaces while good people are falsely accused of racism.
You know, when you've written 10,000 posts, there are a few that you probably regret. I know I can say that.
Enabling. Ezra's wasn't an inadvertant post, it was a deliberate attempt to shut down criticism by smearing an entire group ["alot"] as Jew haters.
And you're cool with that?
The problem with people like Klein using cries of anti-semitism in this way is that there is a rising tide of actual anti-semitic acts and thoughts happening in the world and Klein's actions only assist in the rise of this Anti-Semitism in the same way that the Boy's self-serving cries of "Wolf" on aided the cause of the actual Wolf when it came round.
"10,000 posts"
That was an off-the-cuff guess. TigerHawk has had around 8800 posts, of which I have probably put up 8000 in a little more than five years. Ezra has been blogging longer than I have (on the one hand) but is more serious (so he does not have goofy linky posts). It would not shock me, though, if Ezra had put up 15-20,000 posts over the years.
@ Tigerhawk: And you're cool with that?
I guess I'll take your silence to mean "yes". Very disappointing coming from someone like you, who I respect and enjoy reading.
Maybe when Ezra defames you as a pedophile or somesuch, you'll feel differently. Or at least have the guts to call a spade a spade.
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