Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

On Blogging, Mountains and Molehills, and No Sense of Humor


To listen to some whiners around here, you would think they had never heard of blogging before or just what that entails. Political bloggers are generally a partisan and snarky lot and blog commenters often get very satirical or downright vicious with their words.

For example, a few years ago, former Whitman County Democratic State Committeeman Dave Gibney wrote the following comment on the liberal Washblog:
ALways thought the rapture would be a good thing. All the stuck up assholes would be gone. :)
Gibney's comment was in response to a Washblog contributor who was "disturbed" that Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers attended a "fundamentalist Christian college," writing:
As another layer is peeled away from that American girl facade, instead of a garden variety Reagan conservative Christian, I see another hypocritical fundamentalist.
Now, did anyone make an issue of this comment when Dave threw his hat in the ring for a Pullman City Council appointment? Did anyone demand that the Whitman County Democrats apologize to all Palouse evangelicals because of Gibney's comment. No, of course not. Dave was making a joke. Hence the smiley face. Some might have been offended, but there is no right in the Constitution to not be offended.

Current Whitman County Democratic State Committeeman and former candidate for Whitman County Auditor Nathan Horter has been a diarist at Daily Kos.

Another diarist at Daily Kos, A. Whitney Brown, wrote last year:
Do I still support the individual men and women who have given so much to serve their country? No. I think they’re a bunch of idiots. I also think they’re morally retarded.
Wow. Once again, has anyone demanded an apology from the Whitman County Democrats, assuming Horter must feel the same way about our troops because he "countenances" posts like that by blogging at Daily Kos. No, of course not. That would be guilt by association a la McCarthyism. Theoretically, American political parties have moved beyond that kind of chilling of free speech.

Or have they? Could a local party be so desperate for a victory that they would say or do anything, no matter how exaggerated, how ridiculous or how base to try to win? I think we now know the answer to that question.

The Whitman County Democrats have bigger problems than me right now, and this little campaign of distraction, distortion, and dirt is not going to help.

3 comments:

April E. Coggins said...

This is nothing new. The ends always seem to justify the means. Only a couple of months ago a VERY prominent Whitman county Democrat was in my showroom loudly pronouncing to anyone within earshot that a certain city employee was an "F-ing Nazi." Except the person said the entire word, several times. Needless to say, I was not impressed. Democrats shouldn't conduct themselves in an aggressive, in-your-face manner and then not expect negative reactions.

Red said...

I saw that letter in the S-R today. Root is a tool.

Paul E. Zimmerman said...

I think the official seal needs to be changed.

The baby does not appear to be crying loud enough. It doesn't accurately represent the crybabies it stands for.