Yeah, yeah, I know. Stop the presses. But this is bothering me for several reasons. But first, the backstory.
Glenn Reynolds wrote this after the Webb results:
A reader emails: "Don't you think it's also bad news for the left fringe of the Democrat party? I think it shows that voters will not support the Howard Dean-Kos-fringe and it makes for interesting times as Democrats try to find a presidental candidate for 2008." Yes, when Democrats move to the center, it's bad news for both Republicans and the Democratic far-left.
Only problem, the "Dean-Kos-fringe" was firmly behind Webb. Big "oops".
Glenn Greenwald pounced:
This is so blatantly wrong on so many levels, but Instapundit can't interpret political events without reliance on this childish framework, so he uses it because he has no other option [...]
So the truth is, as is so often the case, the precise opposite of Instapundit's statements. Kos himself supported the winning candidate. So did the "leftist fringe" national political figures like John Kerry. And Webb's defeated opponent, far from being some sort of Hero of the Left, was a run-of-the-mill corporate lobbyist who positioned himself as a moderate to conservative on almost every issue. And yet those unfortunate souls who trust Instapundit's "analysis" and believe what he says are walking around today laboring under the standard fantasy that Webb's victory was a repudiation of the "the Howard Dean-Kos-fringe" even though that "fringe" supported Webb.
For some reason, Reynolds waited until today to respond. He writes:
In an earlier post from last week, I missed the fact that the Kos crowd had backed James Webb. I updated it when Markos and others emailed me, but that didn't stop Glenn Greenwald from putting up a post savaging me for the error [...]
That's a clear claim that Greenwald's post went up AFTER Reynolds updated, correct?
Well, Reynolds knows that's simply not true, since my email to him about the affair was as follows:
Umm, Glenn -- I have been backing Webb since rumors first started floating out of San Diego (yes, San Diego) that he was considering a run. He's also a strong favorite of the Virginia netroots. So how is Webb winning a bad thing for me and my readers?
Like Webb, I used to be a Republican. You guys can keep talking about the "far left fringe of the Democratic Party", but if you were intellectually honest you'd acknowledge that it doesn't live at Daily Kos. We're backing centrist to conservative Democrats in Virginia (Webb), Montana (Tester and Schweitzer), Kansas (Sebelius), Pennsylvania (Casey), and so on.
The caricature you guys are trying to paint simply doesn't meet reality.
For more, read:
http: /glenngreenwald.blogspot.com
2006/06/fact-free-instapundit-inflicts-more.html
So he knew that Greenwald had already written about his fuckup because I included the link to Greenwald's post in my email (which Reynolds acknowledges getting). But nice attempt at misdirection.
And ultimately, as Greenwald notes, Reynolds attempt to fire back missed the entire point of Greenwald's original post:
Contrary to his self-serving characterization, I didn't criticize him because he innocently "missed the fact that the Kos crowd had backed James Webb." The point is that he interpreted the results as a repudiation of the "the Howard Dean-Kos-fringe" without having any basis whatsoever for making that claim, because that cheap, trite "fringe" name-calling -- which is designed to demonize mainstream Democrats -- is the only framework people like Reynolds have for understanding political events.