enter marblehead

Via Thers at WhiskeyFire, we are alerted to the fact that (at last!) Joe Klein has had a brain-wave about why us damn lefty bloggers are so mean and have such dirty, dirty mouths.  It's (gasp!) because of the Right!

As a newcomer to this blogging business, I've been interested in the Edwards dust-up. As readers know, I've been critical of the tone of the left-wing blogosphere in the past.

We understand that, Joe.  It's because we hate America and all.  But we're willing to look past that long enough for you to impart this critical knowledge that you have recently obtained, oh bold and intrepid purveyor of truthiness:

But I think that Yglesias raises an important point here and anyone reading the comments section of any Swampland post knows that troglyditic right-wing cavedwellers fester there, in a vomitously vile manner, too.

What?  There are brainless attack-morons on the Right?  You don't say! 

Klein details an experience he had when he left the DC bubble and turned on the thingy that makes noise and pretty music in the dashboard of his (What do you call it? Oh, yes!) rental car.

And I'd add this: Radio. I was driving into Springfield, Ill last night for the Obama festivities and caught the ever-vile Sean Hannity "interviewing" the even-more-vile Dick Morris about Hillary. Just disgraceful...and they were mild compared to the crap I've heard from Rush and others over the years.

You should get out more, Kleiny.  The shit is everywhere.  Ever heard of this thing called Fox News?  KSFO Snuff Radio?   Hello?! 

It's obvious that the current level of vitriol on the left is a reaction to nearly twenty years of sewage emanating from Rush et al.

Well, congratulations, Mr. Klein.  Provided with a map, detailed instructions, a flashlight, and both hands, you have finally, finally successfully found your own ass.  Next we're going to work on teaching you to chew with your mouth closed, read without moving your lips, and tie your own Stacy Adams saddle oxfords.

But please, oh newly minted Master of the Obvious.  By all means, go on.

It's also a product of the times: There's a whole generation of people who believe that serious political discourse consists of Pat Buchanan and Eleanor Clift screaming at each other. The intemperance on the left has three other sources (1) justifiable fury over the Bush adminstration

Yes! 

(2) justifiable fury over the way the media treated Clinton and, to a certain extent, Bush

Yes, yes!

and (3) ideologues of any sort tend to be obnoxious.

You know, you were close there, Joe, but you had to blow it on the dismount.  Sure, ideologues are obnoxious, but you know what's more obnoxious?  When a condescending middle aged fuck like yourself with no moral compass tries to wade into a fierce ideological battle that we've been here waging for years and then tells us that we don't love our country and that we don't know how to fight.

The trouble is, obnoxious doesn't win you many friends or elections.

Oh, well, then by all means, we should fall back on the pre-2006 election plan of continually getting date-raped by Republican "bipartisanship", swallowing Right Wing narratives whole, and rooting for blinkered, moronic tools like Joe Lieberman?  That sounds like a great plan, Mr. Klein!  When and how shall we ever start?

Oh, right.  That old wheeze you pompous trad-media farts seem to prize so highly, "civility". 

Now, being civil doesn't mean you can't call a fool a fool. It's means you can't call a fool "a wet turd of a human fart." (A sobriquet employed by my favorite character in Primary Colors, Libby Holden.)

How lame is that?  He reaches back to his own slanderous, pseudonymous, anti-Clinton hit piece of a book to wag his finger condescendingly at me.  

Vileness is fun, but it's kid fun--and there is very important business to be transacted in the next few years. And promising candidates like John Edwards don't need to be weighed down by the ill-considered anger of their supporters.

You hear that, you dirty punks with your stupid blogs?  All the hundreds of thousands of dollars you raised for the 2006 elections,  the sharp increase in the number of young people interested in politics, and the seizure by force which this blog and others have led in the media narrative regarding the Libby case, all that?  It's kid stuff.  

Clearly, we need to all take our cues from our Uncle Joe.  It's much more polite to lay back and smile when you're being raped by the Right.  It hurts less than if you fight back.  And by all means, you should stab other liberals in the back and spare no opportunity to belittle the True Believers.  Political commentary is obviously a dirty, dirty business that should be left to dirty, dirty white men who have a wealth of experience knuckling under and selling out.  Why not?  It's worked so well in the past!