Below is a list of liberal bloggers; taken from my ‘interesting liberal’ list at Armed Liberal. There are 34 of them. 5 6 are hyperlinked. These 5 6 are the only ones who gave any coverage to Jim Moran’s anti-Semitic comments. Ted Barlow and Kevin Raybauld took stands that he should step down; CalPundit looks on in bemusement, Matthew Yglesias comments on the politics of it, and Mac Thomason points out that the Right is really more anti-Semitic than the Left.
Look, this is just weak. I’m not Jewish; my brief for Israel is the fact that it is a country that (relatively) promotes values that I can support. But for a political figure at the national level – which a Member of Congress is – to make this kind of comment is pathetic, and his lame-ass ‘apology’, which parses down to ‘I didn’t mean what I said’ is no better than Lott’s ‘some of my best friends are…’ excuses.
And more that that, this is the guy who took out a half-million dollar loan from MBNA shortly before he co-sponsored a bill that sold out working men and women in favor of the big banks.
The Left stood up together and demanded that the Republicans sort this out. We can’t ask less from the Democrats. This guy needs to do some serious atonement; better still he needs to be gone from public life.
[Update: check out the comments, and go over to Eugene Volokh’s for this great quote:
An acquaintance of mine who is a solid liberal Democrat, and who knows what he/she is talking about, writes me:
Jim Moran’s been saying this kind of stuff for years. The people at my synagogue have been ahgast for a long time. Some of them even supported (egads!) the Republican against him last election (these are pretty liberal Jews, so that’s a big deal). There’s been a move afoot for awhile to get a Democratic challenger to him, which makes much more sense because it’s a very Democratic district. My rabbi, Jack Moline, has called on Moran to resign. Moran is also horrible on consumer issues (esp. bankruptcy legislation), has tangled with ethical issues around money and politics and is a notorious womanizer. Funny how the major press reported the apology but there was no story when he originally made the remark more than a week ago.
Folks, we on the left have an obligation not to sit still for this nonsense. Many of the anti-Semites in the Democratic Party get a free ride on the issue because they are black, and the cost of taking on that fight is huge. Here’s a low-hanging fruit, and I’m going to kick and scream on this for a while.
Atrios, Josh Marshall, Max Sawicky, Nathan Newman…where are you guys on this one?]
[Update 2:My bad, somehow my high-tech Ctrl+F search process missed Atrios’ post on Moran…Kevin pointed me to it…but which I would characterize, like Mac’s as weak. The money quote: “…I also agree with Ted – cut the guy loose for all I care.” You ought to…]
The Lefty Directory
Ampersand
Atrios
Ted Barlow
Chris Bertram
The Bloviator
Cal Pundit
Jeff Cooper (not that one)
D^2 Digest
Brad DeLong
Demosthenes
Electrolyte
Andrew Edwards
The Flaming Moderate
Robin Goodfellow
Teresa Nielsen Hayden
Ken Layne
Liberal Desert
Brian Linse
Devra M
OxBlog
Politics in the Zeros
Quasipundit
RaptorMagic
Kevin Raybould
Rebecca’s Pocket
Ann Salisbury
Captain Scott
A Small Victory
Terminus
Through The Looking Glass
War Liberal
Matt Welch
Matthew Yglesias
Well, I did make fun of his name. And call for his resignation. But certainly my point was more about the attempts of right-leaning people to try to paint the Democratic Party as the party of anti-Semitism, which it isn’t.
I am not a liberal nor am I a Democrat. And while I do abhor anti-semitism (and I am staunchly pro-Israel) I cannot possibly cover every single item that appears in the news. If enough bloggers have covered something, I tend to leave it alone and move on to other things. I barely made mention of Trent Lott at all, except to make a few jokes at his expense.
I don’t feel like having a quasi-political blog bestows upon my any sense of responsibility for putting certain news items at the forefront.
While I agree that Moran needs to be treated the same way as Lott was – he should be asked to step down in light of his comments and his views – I don’t believe that anyone should be called to task for not reporting Moran’s actions on their blog.
For some of us, blogging is something we do in between work, family and outside interests. If I wanted to write about every single thing that was important to me on any given news day, I’d never leave the computer.
And it bears repeating: I am not a liberal, I am not a Democrat. Nor am I a Conservative or Republican. I just…am.
More response would be great,but this isn’t a 1-day thing. The key is for some prominent liberal bloggers to do what the right did, and keep the pressure/drumbeat up (“flood the zone,” as your media outlet puts it), while promoting the issue to the wider media.
Instapundit really led that charge, and finding a replacement is tough. Joshua Micah Marshall played an important role on Lott, and he could do it again. Atrios might also be able to pull it off. If they do, and other liberal bloggers stay on the issue, you’ll have a similar effect.
So far, I can’t say it’s encouraging. Though Yourish.com might up your total, and she may know folks off the list who might drive it higher. Still makes one wonder a bit about the 5/34, though…
Mac: “…if he can be forced to resign, great.” isn’t exactly a resounding call for action…
…and I’ll match the GOP country-club anti-Semites against the Democratic inner-city ones any day and call it a draw.
michele: No, you’re not specifically obligated to cover things…none of us are. But when 5 out of 34 cover something, that means something about us and the thing covered.
A.L.
Well, it’s not like the zone was flooded enough for Trent Lott to resign. They just gave him a powerful post in the shadows. I like to think that the Democrats are better than that.
Me too. Let’s help them show it by hammering this issue until someone does something.
A.L.
BTW – I found the story via Atrios – who has called for him to step down.
For the record, I do not think that Moran and Lott are the same situation. Lott was the natural result of winking at the Southern Strategy – and a leader of the party. And he was given the chairmanship of Rule Comitee. The Republican Party did not behave very honrably in that case. As far as I can tell, there is no anti-Semtic strategy in the Democratic Party. Moran is a schmuck – just like the republican in Minnesotta, and the republican in Oregon, and the Republican in North Carolina who have all made racist/bigoted remarks in the last few weeks, and who all still have their jobs.
And with very little fanfare from the right, I might add.
Moran needs to go – but he is a small fish. Compare him to Coble, and you might have a point. He is not equivalent to Lott.
Marshall has posted on this already, agreeing with you that the reaction so far has been overly-tepid. For what it’s worth I’m not calling on him to step down because I don’t really think people should step down for expressing their beliefs. I’d like to see him defeated at the polls (ideally in a primary, but whatever) in 2004 and denounced by the Democratic leadership.
Add one to the list, Dean’s World is on side: “*This guy needs to party with Trent Lott.*” Ouch!
Hmmm…5 out of 34.
Personally, I think the guy’s a buffoon, and he should resign. Then again, it’s not like we haven’t seen this type of behaviour before.
I mean, there was Howard Coble, insisting with a straight face that the Japanese were interned in concentration camps during WWII for their own safety. He’s still in office, and still chairing his committee.
Prior to that, you had the three Representatives who uttered inanely racial remarks in the wake of l’affaire Lott.
I could, of course, tack on Cynthia McKinney’s infamous diatribles.
But let me close.
It seems to me that as long as the chief determinant (by a light-year) for serving in Congress or other political office is the ability to raise insane amounts of money, then one of the byproducts of that is that people like Moran, Coble, McKinney, et al will win office.
TO: Armed Liberal
Your brief for Israel is the fact that it is a country that promotes values that you can support?
You mena values like ethnic cleansing, killing, torture, land stealing, destruction, right?
You surely do not appear to be either intellectually or morally armed.
You mena values like ethnic cleansing, killing, torture, land stealing, destruction, right?
Puh-leeeeeeeeeeease.
iam come from indonesia, and i am include in organization PMII (pergerakan mahasiswa islam indonesia) where this organization is second line in NU (Nahdlatul Ulama). we need support you about indonesian problem, and this problem to rage againts islam fundamentals fos succestely RUU APP (rancangan undang-undang anti pornografi and pornoaction) in legislative forum. we need support some logistic to counter attack this local organizaton islam indonesians, and hope you seriuostely to supoort me.
if you wont seriust gack up and support me, you can transfers some logistic :
retno irawan
member To BCA (Bank central Asia)Indonesia
NO Account/regristration : 6630160551, BCA Bekasi Barat.