The other day, we had a
thread about Talon's readership. Mike Krempasky (who has had an account here for quite some time) showed up and started "answering questions" Kossacks had about the conservative movement. Now, Krempasky is a RedState.org front-pager. While he was being oh-so-informative over here, he had
this post up at RedState.
This will be a little on the long side, so the rest of it will be after the jump....
A brief history: when dK got started, it was like a lot of other blogs are now. I'm thinking specifically of Atrios and Kevin Drum's sites. It was a lefty site that attracted plenty of righties, either as trolls or as reasonable people who begged to differ. With the implementation of Scoop, this place became something else entirely, and that metamorphosis has continued to where we are right now. This place resembles a think tank more than a regular blog now, and I for one like it that way.
Anyway, Krempasky has been around here for a long time, back when this site was still on MT. I can't think of anything that I actually agree with the guy about, but he was not a troll. In general he was polite and well-informed, and he's pretty good at making a statement and backing it up with at least something. However, like a lot of the other tacitus.org posters, he likes to argue, and really seems to enjoy the back-and-forth pissing matches that go on in tacitus' comments section ("I am incensed that you are outraged about my outrage; your brain must be the size of a walnut" ad infinitum).
Now that this has become an advocacy/direct action type of site, Mike still thinks it's okay for him to come over here, olive branch in hand, and wonder why we can't all get along. In the meantime, he's got a new post up right now that's blowing my mind.
I'm angry enough about this that I'm going to fisk it. This is the same exact bullshit we're going to have to deal with in the mainstream media (whatever your acronym of choice is), namely the idea that because of the Guckert scandal, everybody on the left must be a gay-basher. This is a serious enough charge that I'd like to trash it, right now, for once and for all.
Blogging investigations
The next time someone makes a meager attempt to equate the manner and methods with which the blogs on the right approached the Rather/Raines/Jordan affair with those on left when it comes to Gannon/Guckert story - you might not want to bother.
Now left wing bloggers have reached into Gannon's past to uncover and publish photos and archived websites "outing" him as a homosexual, and apparently one who engaged in the kind of activity that would be condemned by most everyone.
No. This is completely wrong. We have not "reached into his past;" this is about what's happening right now. By saying this, Mike is trying to make his readers think that we're digging into this guy's life because we like doing this kind of thing.
Guckert himself is the one responsible for placing the homoerotic content on the Internet. Google caches and Whois databases are open to the public. As Americablog has pointed out, no one's followed him around, no one's stalked him. This stuff got posted so he could make money. All of this information was right out there, waiting for someone to collate it.
As far as "outing" him goes, anyone who is in fact homosexual (or bisexual) and works for a party pushing radical anti-gay legislation in my opinion deserves to be shamed and humiliated, because of the rank hypocrisy involved, not because of the behavior itself. (And running an escort service is not exactly the same thing as being in the closet....)
I personally do not give a damn what the man does in private; I'm a liberal. I don't care. It's fine with me. If he's a hooker, sure, okay, whatever.* I won't speak on every other Kossack's behalf, but I believe that these things are not what really concern us, they're incidental to the main issues. In and of itself, the porn, the homosexuality, and the prostitution that have been alleged are not cause for a major controversy. They are not why readers of this site have been involved with discovering details of this guy's life. OK? Anyone who insists otherwise is either dense, mis-informed, or deliberately lying.
So what are the main issues? Let me review a few data points here:
Guckert had access to an internal, classified CIA memo. Where did he get it? THIS IS THE A#1 PRIMO REASON WE ARE INTERESTED IN GUCKERT. I do not know how to make this more clear. He played some sort of role in the Plame-CIA leak, and we want to know what the role was. The side of the blogosphere that fancies themselves superior on questions of national security should be taking this point more seriously. In fact, the diary that began all this craziness was titled "Plame leaked by fake news source?" [Much more information at this page on the dKosopedia for the especially dense.]
Another problem: in order to be credentialed in the White House Press room, you must already have Congressional credentials. He applied for these and was turned down, because he could not prove that he wrote for a politically independent organization. To get around this, he received a day pass for two straight years. To the best of my knowledge, he asked a question, if not every day, then most days. He also asked at least one question of the President himself. Talon News did not exist until five days before he was given access to the White House. He is (was) part of a propaganda mill and yes, Kossacks have a vested interest in seeing lies exposed for what they are. I'm not sorry if that offends Mike Krempasky.
The movement of "not that there's anything wrong with that" has disintegrated into using what they once lauded as just a different kind of normal as a weapon against anyone who doesn't toe the line of their political orthodoxy.
Cute Seinfeld reference there, Mike. I've never been part of any movement that had a "not that there's anything wrong with that" attitude towards homosexuality. It's not my business. It doesn't impact me in any way, shape or form. I never thought of it as a "different kind of normal" either. That sounds an awful lot like "separate but equal" to me, and it's just as wrongheaded.
We do not need Guckert's homosexuality or involvement with porn or involvement with prostitution to make our point. We exposed Talon News, and may have connected some dots in the Plame case (keywords: may have, we still don't know).
The movement of individual choice - of so-called civil liberties, and most definitely of the cries, "stay out of our bedroom" has exposed itself as(or perhaps evolved into) nothing more than purient [sic] thuggery with no respect - only a craven hunger for power.
I'd call it shameful if I had even a small hope that they'd recognize the concept.
We're not saying, look what a terrible faggot this guy is, let's go get him with pitchforks and torches. We are saying that he's, at the minimum, a liar and hypocrite. He might also be a hooker. What's especially serious--and what the real source of the controversy is--he may in fact be involved in not only disseminating government propaganda but perhaps also in a breach of national security (Plame). We still don't know that for certain. But we have reason to suspect it, given what we know about this Administration and PR.
Krempasky's a smart guy, so surely he's aware that calling Democrats gay-bashers is silly on its face. So what's his game? I don't know.
Personally, I'd like to see his account get 0-rated out of existence. It doesn't seem right to me that anyone who wants to talk shit about this site should have posting privileges at this site. (And if you don't think he was talking shit, go back and read that "Gannon fever" post.) I can't ban him on my own and I really dislike making that decision for the community. I'd very much appreciate what the community thinks.
If you're curious, here is his user profile, where you can read all of his comments. (I think it's amusing that he's got a typo in the URL of his webpage.)
Sorry about the length, but I feel this is important. If anyone agrees, please recommend so we can get a decent sample size of Kossacks to see this.
*Not that I'm cavalier about prostitution....A sensible solution to all sorts of victimless crimes would include decriminalization coupled with rational public education, non-stigmatization of individuals, and public shelters, etc. But that's off-topic.