Taylor v. Brock v. Althouse

Liberal blogger Brad DeLong wrote a scathing critique of Stuart Taylor (scroll to Feb. 11, permalink may have problems), who in turn wrote a scathing critique of the Bush Administration's Guantanamo Bay detainee policy. Taylor says most detainees are likely to be completely innocent people turned in for bounty money. Why did DeLong criticize someone who's criticizing Bush? DeLong points disgustedly to Taylor's many prior statements in support of the Bush Administration torture regime.

Contrast DeLong's reaction to the generally positive reaction David Brock has received for his book, Blinded By the Right, and his work at Media Matters. Brock had done much worse things in support of the Republican smear machine than anything Taylor said, until Brock repented. I think the key difference is that Brock came all the way around, and apologized and disassociated himself from his past. Taylor just ignored that it ever happened.

Then there's Ann Althouse, a supposedly moderate law blogger, who complains that she gets mostly affirmation from the right and mostly criticism from the left. I think she might be getting the Taylor reaction here - so many years of horror from the Bush Administration, and if all she does is an occasional nod of agreement to the left, she should not be surprised at the underwhelming response.

For what it's worth, I'm probably less critical of Taylor than DeLong, and more wary of Brock than most liberals. As for Althouse, I'm not sure her "moderateness" holds up. After seeing her moderate claim repeated yet another time, I scrolled through every post on her front page, several days ago (there were many, many posts). I counted one and one-half moderate/liberal posts. One said racism was a serious issue, and I gave half-credit for a post saying Bill Clinton has good political skills.

Of her remaining several dozen posts, half or more were apolitical. The rest were either supportive of the Republicans, critical of Democrats, or went on at great length over the horror of the Muslims rioting about the Danish cartoons. While liberals also oppose censorship, the obsession and self-righteousness over the cartoon mess is something I put in the conservative camp. Althouse may have some moderate to liberal views, but they're not a focus of her blog. She might yet make my "Readable Righties" list, but I'll have to think about it.