Yesterday Glen Reynolds — the king of the conservative blogosphere — wrote that “the Left certainly seems to be identifying with Ward Churchill,” the professor who made offensive comments about the people who died on 9/11.
The only evidence Reynolds provided for this smear was a newspaper article which noted that, before Churchill spoke recently on a satellite campus of the University of Wisconsin, a couple left leaning groups — including one called the “Whitewater United for Peace Party” — held “a student rally celebrating free speech.”
Maybe I’m missing something here but, as Armando noted on Daily Kos yesterday — it is completely ridiculous to use a free speech rally by a couple of student groups to brand the entire left as sympathetic to Churchill’s hateful, reprehensible comments.
Reynolds took note of Armando’s post and used it as an excuse to make the same illogical argument again. As proof of his theory the left is smitten with Churchill, Reynolds gleefully published an email which informed him, “Look what happened!! The comments [of Armando’s post] turned into support for what Ward Churchill said.”
Anyway, I’ve skimmed through the comments section and there are probably six or seven people — with names like Planet B, Ksecus and TheChanMan — who say favorable things about Churchill’s comments. For all anyone knows, Planet B could be Reynolds’ nephew.
This is the right-wing playbook. An obscure college professor makes an outrageous statement. The Whitewater United for Peace Party holds a free speech rally. TheChanMan says he’s sympathetic. And, according to the right-wing blogger of record, all of a sudden “the left” is “identifying” with terrorist sympathizers.