Saturday, October 13, 2007

My Munchkin's Better Than Your Munchkin   [Mark Hemingway]

The Lefty blogosphere reaction to the whole Graeme Frost/SCHIP situation is a never ending source of amusement for me. I normally avoid the vitriol clearinghouse Firedoglake as if it were a pedophile with viral meningitis, but I was particularly struck by this reaction:

The difference between the far right wing and the far left wing: the far right will do anything — anything — so long as the ends justifies the means. The far left folks have ethical boundaries that they try very hard not to cross: things like attacking other people’s minor children is bad form . . .

Well, it's good to read that the far Left has ethical boundaries that are sacrosanct, especially coming from a blog that's chiefly known for its creator having to apologize for throwing up a Photoshopped Joe Lieberman in blackface and a minstrel outfit embracing Bill Clinton. (Firedoglake's founder Jane Hamsher also ended a review of NR editor Kate O'Beirne's book by calling her a "foaming fascist" and saying "the b*tch is dead meat." Classy!)

Well, it seems that back in 2005, Bush and the Republicans dragged out nine-year-old Noah McCullough to be the poster child for Social Security reform. Now I am on record as not being a fan of using kids to score rhetorical points — whether I agree with the munchkin's politics or not. That said, I found it highly amusing when John Henke over at QandO dredged up the liberal blogosphere reaction to nine-year-old McCullough:

• Jesus' General and TBogg, who made sexual references to the kid.
• Kewpie, who called him "a budding young fascist" and "dumb"
• DadaHead, who said the kid was "in desperate need of a good ass-kicking...
• Democratic Underground, where commenters wrote quite a lot of things that I don't care to reprint
• Salon's What Would Dick Think, Daily Kos and Atrios, who called the kid "Cousin Oliver"
• And, at Ezra Klein's own blog, Melissa McEwan said his appearance was "indicative of a desperation reserved for policy proposals that are ready for the graveyard"...

But I'm glad there are people out there convinced their particular political tribe has an exclusive claim to moral superiority. As my friend Ben Pershing of Roll Call is fond of saying, "There are two kinds of people in the world: Those that divide everybody into groups, and those that overgeneralize."

10/13 02:42 AMShare