Joe was on the receiving end of some of that vitriol and was so shocked by it he felt the need to warn everyone about it.
But the smart stuff is being drowned out by a fierce, bullying, often witless tone of intolerance that has overtaken the left-wing sector of the blogosphere. Anyone who doesn’t move in lockstep with the most extreme voices is savaged and ridiculed–especially people like me who often agree with the liberal position but sometimes disagree and are therefore considered traitorously unreliable. Some of this is understandable: the left-liberals in the blogosphere are merely aping the odious, disdainful–and politically successful–tone that right-wing radio talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh pioneered. They are also justifiably furious at a Bush White House that has specialized in big lies and smear tactics.
It’s Rush Limbaugh’s and George Bush’s fault? You can’t be serious, Joe. You’re trying to get back on the leftist bloggers’ good side, aren’t you.
Charles Johnson at LGF adds: “You and your magazine helped build this constituency, Joe. Own it. Be proud of it.”
Update: Rick Moran notes that Joe is already feeling the heat from the nutroots for his criticism:
Klein is already hearing it today for daring to call the liberal blogs what they are; raving lunatics who cannot tolerate an iota of dissent from their worldview. Will Joe Klein do as most other liberals do who find themselves in the crosshairs of lefty blogs and go before them with bended knee and abjectly apologize for his heresy? Or is he enough of an independent thinker to tell them to take a hike?
