Kos Kerfuffle Roundup (UPDATED)

For the last few days I've been in the ideological trenches, waging war over this sordid, tawdry little controversy. I have been in multiple comment box battles, and I've written e-mails to advertisers (happily with success) to try to get them to drop their adds from "the Daily Kos", the hateful, vile website of Markos Zuniga, a committed member of the anti-American, anrgy left, who also happens to be a major player in Democratic party fundraising, and a principal in a big-time political consulting firm popular with leaders in the Democratic party. Though I normally don't care for things like boycotting campaigns, public "de-linking" (not an issue here, because I never linked to Zuniga's disgusting site to begin with). These tactics have the whiff of busybodiness and sanctimony to me usually, but I truly think this case is time for an exception. Markos Zuniga's ("Kos"'s) comments were well on the wrong side of any reasonable line of humanity and civility. I wouldn't link to his site to show what he said anyway, not wanting to drive more traffic (and ultimatley more cash) to this festival of anti-American hate, but that's not even an option, as he's already Stalinistically disappeared his original post down a memory hole, and even attempted to wipe out any trace of the original post's existence from google cahe and the internet archive. A screen-shot of Zuniga's comments can be found here. I'll reproduce the words in question below:

Every death should be on the front page

Let the people see what war is like. This isn't an Xbox game. There are real repercussions to Bush's folly.

That said, I feel nothing over the death of merceneries [sic]. They aren't in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.

This of course is in response to the brutal murder and corpse mutilation of four American civilian defense contractors in Fallujah, Iraq last week. I'm with James Taranto on this. I have nothing to say about these comments. They speak for themselves. Such reckless hate. What needs to be talked about, though, is to what extent these sentiments reflect the "liberals" and the Democratic party of today.

First of all, it almost goes without saying that reveling over death and brutality does not in anyway jibe with the real liberal tradition in Western political thought, a proud tradition that results in part in Markos Zuniga's ability to freely make such hateful statements about his fellow Americans. However, Markos Zuniga is considered a mainstream voice in the Democratic Party, one who raises loads of cash for it. So, in this case the e-mail campaign to persuade those Democratic Party Congress and Senate candidates who advertise on "Kos" to pull their ads is entirely justified. It's important to know where these people, and by extension the party as whole, stand. It's entirely equivalent to the (entirely justified) uproar among liberals whenever a Republican consorts with one of the wackier social/religious conservative groups or speaks at Bob Jones university, or to the equally entirely justified campaign, led by explicitly liberal, Democratic partisan figures like Joshua Micah Marshall and Sydney Blumenthal, to make Trent Lott pay for his vile statements.

Happily, it seems that these mainstream Democrats have no tolerance for Zuniga's new version of fascism. Two of the Democratic candidates advertising on "Kos", Joe Donnely running for Congress in Southern Indiana, and Martin Frost, running for congress in Texas, pulled their ads immediately and with very strong statements. I'm not surprised that they did. I imagined that they'd have to be quite moderate Democrats indeed in order to have any chance of succeeding in those two states. Frost's picture with his ad featured him amongst a group of soldiers. Jane Mitakides, running for Congress in Ohio, on the other hand seemed to be much more of a Kos fellow traveler, touting her relationship with Kos on her website. She finally opted-out of his site, as well, but much later than the others, with this tortured e-mail, which makes sure to hit upon all the good leftist tropes anyway:

Thank you to all who have contacted us to alert us to the unfortunate statements made on The Daily Kos regarding the deaths of the American contractors in Iraq.

Many of you know that I come from a family with deep military roots, and I have been dedicated to supporting our troops and our veterans my entire life. I also believe that whenever a life is lost to violence… American or Bosnian, Somalian or Hutu, Palestinian, Israeli or Iraqi… mankind is diminished.

We have made the decision to remove our advertising from that website, to assure that there is no confusion about my position on this matter. But I want to be clear on one point: this decision is not because of any "pressure" I have received. It is a personal decision, and one I have not made lightly.

In the past, Kos has provided a valuable forum for Democrats, for the sharing of issues and information, and I believe "blogs" such as these will continue become a real force in political communications.

Again, thank you for your e-mail, and for your interest in this very important race

Sincerely,

Jane Mitakides

Note her making sure to include "Palestinian" in her list, and her contention that Kos "has provided a valuable forum for Democrats". "The Daily Kos" and sites like it such as Atrios, moveon.org, and Democratic Underground are part and parcel of the Democratic Party. John Kerry's blog has stopped linking to Kos, much to the chagrin of the commenters there, and some prominent blogosphere Democrats have disavowed Zuniga's appalling remarks.

Still, this is no cause for celebration, or for exoneration of the bulk of the "left", or whatever exactly it thinks it is these days, yet. Though John Kerry's blog no longer links to "Kos" it still links to the even more vile Democratic Underground. Zuniga, meanwhile, has only become more strident, manifesting not the slightest bit of human empathy for the men whose killing and mutilation he celebrates. And, will Kerry still take all of that dirty "Kos" money? And, while some prominent blogosphere lefties have indeed firmly rebuked Kos's comments, some other prominent lefty voices seem to think that Kos's comments, though, perhaps, a tad discivil, are nothing to really get bent out of shape over and anyone who does is just part of a right-wing smear campaign. Though it's unclear exactly how far this cancer of Makros Zuniga-style hate has spread in the liberal body politic, it's quite clear that it is there, and that the damage that has been done is far from trivial. It is frightening to think of how difficult it will be for conservative and centrist Americans to lead this country and to fight a world war against Islamofascist terrorism while such rot has consumed part of one of our two major political parties. Michael Friedman, an excellent new blogger blogging from Shangahi, who led the campaign to remove Kos of his advertisers, has some intriguing thoughts about how to handle this situation, and the form that the war of ideas will take in the future.

UPDATE: Mark Kleinman makes a jaw-dropping reply to this post. I think his remarks are quite revealing of the extent to which even moderate, mainstream Democrat type liberals like Kleinman are willing to put up with the likes of "Kos" for their purely partisan goal of defeating Bush. You see, even for Kleinman, who rejected both Kos's original vile remarks and his subsequent non-apology in very strong terms, it appears that moral clarity is a secondary consideration to partisan gain. The rebukes to Kos, which only came from a handful of relatively moderate Democrats, were mostly just for show. After the heat dies down, it's back to business as usual apparently:

But I don't think that Kos, or Daily Kos, has somehow become permanently radioactive; he said a dumb thing, he took a hit for it, and he said it was dumb. If I were a campaign manager, I wouldn't advertise on his site today, but I might two months from now. [emphasis mine, obviously]

The Democratic Party simply cannot exist without sites like Kos and consulting firms like Armstrong Zuniga. The Party is dependent on the cash they raise and the angry "base" they fire up. Hence, the retroactive justifications begin. Notice that Kleinman first said Zuniga's remarks were "beyond the pale". Now they were merely "dumb". As Ron Rosenbaum said, Left means never having to say you're sorry.

SECOND UPDATE:Now Kleinman finds some pathetic bit of ass-covering by "Kos" and concludes that Kos, after all, is really a patriot. Heh, as they say. Meanwhile, Kos can barely contain his glee at the recent bad news in Iraq, and continues to circulate the long discredited "mercenary" libel against American civilian defense contractors, shortening it to "merc", to ease the process of dehuminization.

Comments

[ete]

"I tell people don't kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus—living fossils—so we will never forget what these people stood for."

- Rush Limbaugh
Such reckless hate. What needs to be talked about, though, is to what extent these sentiments reflect the "conservatives" and the Republican party of today.

[Eric Deamer]

Making a joke about killing liberals, such as the (non-linked) example you quote and the Ann Coulter Al Qaeda should've bombed the New York Times comment, though tasteless and stupid, is still substantially less severe, IMO, then gloating over 4 grisly deaths that have actually happened. The former, though certainly objectionable, is meant to be hyperbole. The latter, expressing callousness over real deaths, is far worse.