A plea for higher standards in the blogosphere

by Chris Bertram on September 30, 2003

“Glenn Reynolds deplores”:http://www.instapundit.com/archives/011754.php :

bq. the excessive gleefulness and point-scoring of the anti-Bush bloggers in general on this topic, [which] only serves to make this matter look more political, and less serious, than it perhaps is.

I’d just like to endorse that sentiment, and look forward to the bright future of Instapundit, freed from all that excessive gleefulness and point-scoring on serious matters.

{ 13 comments }

1

Doug 09.30.03 at 9:22 am

Heh.

Indeed.

2

bad Jim 09.30.03 at 9:56 am

THE PLAME/WILSON STORY remains, in Roger Simon’s words “too complicated” for me to feel I really understand it.

I suppose I should just be happy to see such solicitude on the behalf of a reputed CIA agent from people who aren’t usually so solicitous.

Denial and guilt by association. (Liberal were upset by previous CIA misdeeds and are henceforth and forever disqualified). Higher standards indeed.

3

Doug 09.30.03 at 11:05 am

UPDATE: Read the whole thing.

4

Barry 09.30.03 at 11:51 am

Wow. Instapundit minus partisan sniping.

That would certainly be the Shorter Instapundit.

5

bryan 09.30.03 at 12:36 pm

And as matters are developing it looks like the anti-scumitarians are really making the scum uncomfortable.

indeed.

6

Norbizness 09.30.03 at 1:59 pm

Barry: I think it could potentially be reduced to publishing linked articles in their entirety without editorial comment, with hourly weather reports from Knoxville interspersed (“The Weather Channel says that it’s about 72 with partly cloudy skies. Indeed.”)

7

freddie 09.30.03 at 3:00 pm

I go frequently to his site and am at times amused at his inability to realize that even Bush and gang might at times be wrong. Insta seems to brook no dissenting opinion that things might possibly be wrong with the Bush policies and forges on, defending what at times seems indefensible.

8

Tristero 09.30.03 at 3:36 pm

There’s no gleefulness to be had when senior administration aides commit what appears in all likelihood to be treason. Let’s not forget: they outed a CIA operative, who apparently was running undercover operations.

I feel only sadness, anger, a bit of schadenfreude watching bastards get their comeuppance, all combined with the terrible knowledge I was right about these guys all along.

But glee? Glenn Reynolds is a fool.

9

UncleBob 09.30.03 at 4:03 pm

The people currently in power have entrenched themselves by breaking the rules (i.e. Tom DeLay and the Texas redistricting), they’ve shown themselves to be utterly reckless and dangerous. And they’ve displayed incredible contempt toward the Constitution.

I am reserving my glee for the moment when the wooden stake is applied vigorously as to the vampire’s heart.

10

Doug 09.30.03 at 4:13 pm

Working theory for some time has been that Rove, DeLay et al. lead a wing of the Republican party that is best understood as essentially Bolshevik: power by any means necessary, power for its own sake, rigidly enforced ideological conformity, institutions are to be subverted or trampled, rules exist only for other people to follow, control of the cadres down to the lowest level is key. (Did y’all see the bit about how even doctors sent to Iraq had to be anti-abortion?) Add in politicization, at a new level, at places ranging from the Park Service and EPA through the DoD.

I’m all for glee – it’s about time these Bolshies got their comeuppance!

11

Henry 09.30.03 at 7:28 pm

If this had been, say, the French outing a covert US agent, Reynolds would be falling over himself with indignation, and with bizarre conspiracy theories trawled from SdB that were “plausible” explanations of what was going on. His squirming posts over the last couple of days are a public embarrassment.

12

Matt Weiner 10.01.03 at 2:39 am

I must confess, I am feeling slightly gleeful, and will feel considerably gleeful if this winds up with Karl Rove signing a ten-year contract to play in the Federal Rock Hockey League. (courtesy Walt Kelly).

Of course I was angry when I found out that a CIA operative on WMD had been burned. But the half of the blogosphere that links to Mark Kleiman found that out two and a half months ago. The new development is that it looks like the culprits might pay for the crime, and that’s cause for glee.

The dynamics of this are a bit like the Trent Lott affair. A lot of Democrats had known that Lott was a racist for a while before Strom’s birthday party. The outrage was more palpable among right-wingers because they were just finding out.

13

Maccabee 10.07.03 at 10:38 pm

The hypocrisy of the right wing is beyond the pale.

John Ashcroft, in 1998, on Evans and Novak wanted an independant counsel on the issue of which phone Al Gore used to make a solicitation from in the White House.

But Ashcroft, today, investigating the outing a US operative in the field, that’s like the fox guarding the henhouse.

Christ

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