Now We're To Blame for Ben Domenech, Too

Here's the latest example of the bizarre lengths to which some in the media will go to Blame Liberals First. In The New Republic, Rob Anderson bemoans the shallowly stereotyped image that liberals supposedly have of red-state Americans. He then links this to (of all things) the recent case of the ill-fated Washington Post blogger Ben Domenech:

Last week, the Post breathed new life into those old stereotypes by launching Red America, a blog dedicated to offering "a daily mix of commentary, analysis, and cultural criticism" from a right-wing perspective.

And Anderson then goes on to berate the Post for hiring Domenech--a vitriolic right-wing hack and, we now know, a plagiarist--rather than one of the many "respected" conservative journalists he says were available.

Fascinating. A conservative blogger who has extensive writing experience for National Review Online, The Washington Times, and RedState.com, and is also an editor at Regnery, the favorite book-publishing house of the right, is given a role on the big stage at the Washington Post--and when he turns out to be a sleazeball, it's the liberals' fault?!

This is of a piece with the emerging conservative meme (via Bruce Bartlett, et. al.) that the problem with Bush's policies has been that he is a budget-buster, an internationalist, and a big-government supporter--in short, a liberal.

Any day now we'll be hearing that Howard Dean and Russ Feingold were responsible for appointing Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzalez, and Chertoff. As for invading Iraq--hey, Bush did it solely to satisfy the demands of the NAACP, the ACLU, and the teachers' unions.

Tags: Ben Domenech, Rob Anderson, Washington Post