MORE DISCORD ON THE LEFT

[I'm watching the Big East tournament as my red-hot alma mater Marquette and Georgetown square off just after Syracuse beat number one NCAA-ranked Conn, so this blog will be cursory.]

The New Republic has a blog called The Plank and this day Jason Zengerle gets exercised about the clueless scattershot emotionalism of the liberal blogosphere, where "passion" masquerades as committment and heat for light:

MORE ON THE FUTILITY OF THE LIBERAL BLOGOSPHERE:

Kevin Drum and Laura Turner are taking issue with
my post about liberal bloggers' latest losing campaign. Specifically, both object to my notion that Ciro Rodriguez's defeat is a defeat for Kos et al's "ideology of winnerism." [Also, JZ notes the "chest-thumping" Kossacks 0 for 14 batting average in their races] Turner writes:

Doesn't Zengerle posit there might be, like, a reason the blogs launched themselves behind Rodriguez that might have to do with ideology, in the sense that Cueller is (and he really is) a very bad Democrat? If Kos and Atrios just wanted a win for somebody with a D behind his name, they probably would have stayed out of Texas-28, which already gurantees such an outcome given that the GOP doesn't even run candidates in the district (somehow the Republican revolution never took hold there). The blogs took a chance on the underdog Rodriguez. Isn't that the opposite of a blind Democratic "winnerism"?

To the extent he talks about it at all, Zengerle chalks the blogs' preference for Rodriguez up the fact that Cueller hugged Bush after the SOTU. But, in fact, the liberal bloggers' complaints went far beyond, and are far more substantial than, that incident. In fact, most of the librerals' complaints with Cueller are ones Zengerle and his colleagues at TNR probably share. Or does TNR secretly like the Club for Growth? Obviously the majority of the masthead doesn't, but by so blatantly mischaracterizing Kos and other online Rodriguez-supporters, Zengerle is begging to be similarly mischaracterized himself.

Look, I don't dispute that Cuellar is a bad Democrat and that there were good ideological reasons to oppose him. But let's face it: If he hadn't hugged Bush at the State of the Union, the liberal blogosphere never would have gone after him. As far as I can tell, the first time Kos ever mentioned Cuellar was the morning after the State of the Union, under the headline, "Cuellar sat on Republican side of aisle at SOTU." Atrios was similarly late to the game. It was only after the blogosphere declared war against Cuellar that it realized that, in addition to committing the cardinal sin of hugging Bush, he was a bad Democrat on substantive grounds.

In fact, the liberal bloggers' involvement in the Cuellar-Rodriguez race--sparked as it was by a hug--struck me as an exercise in juvenile pique. Which is their right, of course, except these very same bloggers are constantly claiming they aren't juvenile or fevered and are in fact cold-blooded tacticians and strategic grandmasters. But is it really all that strategically smart to enter a campaign (about which you know virtually nothing) a mere month before election day? Aren't you basically setting yourself up for failure? Isn't it even possible that you risk helping the other guy by creating a backlash (a la all the Orange-hatted, out-of-state Dean volunteers who ticked off Iowa voters)?

Now, in the wake of Rodriguez's defeat, these bloggers are talking about how they drew a line in the sand and sent a message, etc., etc. One of them, Chris Bowers at MyDD, is even proclaiming, "If Cuellar makes fewer appearances with Bush, then we will have succeeded." And some success that will be!

Again, I don't dispute that, on the merits, Rodriguez wasn't a better candidate than Cuellar. I just think that the blogosphere's involvement in the race was indicative of the scattershot, emotional, sometimes almost counterproductive approach it takes to politics. Drum, while acknowledging the liberal bloggers' terrible batting average, notes that "Rome wasn't built in a day." True enough. But, Kos et al's grand pronouncements to the contrary, I don't think that they're building Rome.
--Jason Zengerle

[Actually, it's more like making the rubble bounce over there in the Kossack steppe country. Kos' grandiose pronunciamentos and manifestoes belie his pitiful scorecard.]

Kossacks = paper pussycat.