“Liberals hunt down heretics, while conservatives happily chase converts.”

Michael Kinsley, as quoted by Joe Klein

I don’t know whether Kinsley is right. It seems to me that right-wingers have spent a fair amount of time since 1964 hunting down heretics.

But I’m only concerned with us liberals – or progressives, or whatever we’re supposed to call ourselves these days.

Because we now have a new tool for tracking down and trashing heretics: the blogs.

Internet communication seems to bring out the worst in people.

If you thought Carter and I said ugly things back in the Hunt-Helms race in 1984, your ears and eyes would be burning if you read the ugly things said daily on blogs.

And they bring out the worst in liberals.

Ask Hillary Clinton. She’s so used to being bashed by liberal blogs that she didn’t go to the big bloggers’ bash in Las Vegas last week. She probably feels like the victim of a vast left-wing conspiracy.

The bloggers are a real force in Democratic politics today. Just what we need: one more interest group for our candidates to kowtow to.

After all, the bloggers made Howard Dean what he is today.

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