Is there anyway to get Glenn to tone it down a notch? Clearly brilliant, and a great writer, it would be great if one could characterize Glenn as "shrill", like Paul Krugman - but I'm afraid you have to describe him as over-the-top. His tendency to exaggeration and gross generalization will eventually lessen the effectiveness of his voice, which would really be a shame.
Eschaton linked to Greenwald's piece on D.C. Pundits, and called it a "well deserved spanking." It's not.
Glenn's post condemns the inside-the Beltway pundit class in pretty strong terms, calling them "corrupt to their core and always wrong." He said that they had "no core convictions and no passion." Their worldview is "as inaccurate as it is "bereft of integrity and principle." The immediate prompt for this outrage was Russ Feingold's recent announcement that he would not run for President in 2008, which proved conclusively that anyone who wondered if his call for the censure of Bush was possibly the result of a careful political calculation, was both corrupt and stupid.
Glenn was outraged on this AP coverage of Feingold's call for Bush's censure:
While only two Democrats in the Senate have embraced Sen. Russ Feingold's call for censuring President Bush, the idea is increasing his standing among many Democratic voters as he ponders a bid for the party's presidential nomination in 2008.
That sentence is entirely accurate. But Glenn uses a slightly deceptive gambit to make his point: "Feingold obviously hadn't decided to run for President and apparently wasn't planning on it."
But he sure was considering it. He set up a PAC. If you check out Google you'll find at least 15 different sites that were promoting Russ for 2008. He traveled to New Hampshire and Iowa. That famed Washington insider Joel McNally, writing for the Madison [WI] Capital Times and quoted by Common Dreams asked "Of course, if Feingold weren't already leaning toward becoming a candidate, why would a Wisconsin senator be campaigning in Florida?" Another leading paper in the punditocracy, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted that "In the aftermath of his re-election, [Feingold] "maintained a campaign of five in Wisconsin, including two fund-raisers." In it's cover story on Feingold, who it named Man of the Year, The Madison Magazine quoted the Senator as saying "Being president, running for president, I am very mixed about whether that's the right thing for me."
It is not outrageous for any observer, be they from D.C., or from Madison, or commuting between Brazil and Manhattan, to wonder about the Presidential aspirations of someone behaving as Feingold did. If Feingold was the entirely uncalculating, American-heartland naif that Greenwald wishes to convince us he is; we'd be in big trouble.
Commenting on the request for Censure, Firedoglake approvingly noted a comment from Pachacutec who had written "I think this is very smart work on Feingold's part. I'm impressed with his ability to mix principle and aggression with canny politics."
Greenwald has the aggression part down pat, and he believes in his principles, although I am concerned that he let's his anger take him over the line. I see no signs of the canny politics part.
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