BIGOTS

...permeate and dominate the lefty blogosphere. Read this post, then follow up by reading this post.

There is no excuse for the blurb about Michelle Malkin, and less of an excuse for others to praise that post uncritically. Yet there is a blogswarm on the left doing just that. And then piling on taking personal shots at everything about her.

There may still be members of the left who haven't shed their humanity and decency. If there are, none of them have blogs or comment on blogs.

(via Powerline)

UPDATE: Jeff Goldstein speaks up.

MORE: Do any blogosphere liberals have a sense of decency anymore? Well, yes and no. Most leftists are still defending Mithras' post as "humor," though it never met the basic requirements of humor--that it have some grain of truth to it, and that it actually be funny. The one liberal I've seen who is criticizing the racist and misogynistic bit about Michelle Malkin manages to smear Michelle again in the process. Jeralyn Merritt, whom I've respected even while disagreeing with her for years, slams Mithras but then bares some fangs for Michelle. In order to make this whole thing intelligible, I have to print what Mithras originally wrote about Michelle, something I'm loath to do, but here it is followed by Merritt's take:

Michelle Malkin: Far-right affirmative action hire who is so bigoted she'd arrest herself for trying to cross a border. Famously published a book praising internment of Japanese-Americans that was (a) incoherent and (b) probably not written by her. If she didn't have t*ts, she'd be stuck writing at Townhall.com. (the censorship is Jeralyn's)

I agree Michelle Malkin is bigoted and I think she does a great disservice to minorities. But she is talented, as a writer and a television personality, and I don't think she's an "affirmative action hire" by Fox News, for which she serves as a contributor. She has guest-hosted for Sean Hannity of Hannity and Colmes, and given that show's ratings, you can be sure they wouldn't trust the guest-host spot to someone who couldn't pull it off. I saw her one night subbing for him, and she did her job - she was Sean Hannity II. She has a good tv presence, as those things are measured. She's pleasant, she smiles, and she's articulate. Is she wrong on almost everything she says? In my opinion, yes. But, it appears she thinks for herself and a liberal, of all people, should be the first to note that the First Amendment mandates she be entitled to express herself.

That's a defense--to agree with the "she's a bigot" smear, to defend her against the "affirmative action hire rap" by saying she's a "disservice to minorities" and then laud her for at least thinking for herself, as though that's somehow a surprise? Shouldn't her undeniable success and thinking for herself make Michelle not a disservice to minorities, but something better? Maybe the opposite of being a "disservice to minorities?" Which is...?

A credit to her race?

Oh. Don't want to go there, eh, Jeralyn? Do liberals ever realize just how racist it is to describe anyone as a "disservice to minorities?"

Jeralyn's "defense" is hardly a defense, not that Michelle needs anyone to defend her. She's more than capable of doing that on her own.

But this "disservice to minorities" nonsense needs to end sometime. It amounts to being a pat on the head or a spank on the tush from Big Smilin' Whitey, meaning it's condescending to the nth degree.

As for Michelle being a bigot, neither Mithras nor Jeralyn offers up any evidence (which is because there isn't any, because she isn't a bigot). But why prove your case when a casual smear will do, eh, Jeralyn? Honestly, I expected better of you than this.