This piece of disingenuous nonsense from Volokh Conspirator Randy Barnett has already been kicked around by Henry and Brian, so I’m not going to write about it. But I’m pleased to see that Head Conspirator Eugene Volokh agrees with pretty much everything Henry has been saying.
Eugene attacks a Slate column which argues that conservatives in general — Ann Coulter, right-wing intellectuals, the White House, Uncle Tom Cobbley and all — are a monolithic unit differentiated only by their willingness to say what they really believe. Coulter is just a more loud-mouthed version of Ari Fleischer, and the Volokh Conspirators are separated from the wingnuts only by the occasional “empty semantic difference.” Eugene is properly outraged that someone would be so stupid or spiteful as to lump responsible conservatives like him in with Ann Coulter. He persuasively argues that when someone does this “it’s hard to give much credit to the rest of his moral — or logical — judgment.” Too true, Eugene. You should send Randy an email with a link to your blog or something — he’d really benefit from reading it.
>Eugene is properly outraged that someone would be so stupid or spiteful as to lump responsible conservatives like him
What gives Prof. Volokh the idea that the column was about him, for god’s sake?? I hear a certain Carly Simon tune wafting thru my head…
Because he (properly, to my mind) self-identifies as part of the “responsible” Right (which he distinguishes from Coulter et al), and Tanenhaus’ column was explicitly attempting to conflate that “responsible” Right with Coulter.
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