Power Line: Apocalypse Kerry Redux

Long story short: Two of the guys at Power Line Blog get an Op-Ed published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Subject: Kerry's excellent adventures in Cambodia of course. It laid out, necessarily in brief, some of the substance behind the charges of Kerry's prevarication. In response, "Strib" editorialist Jim Boyd took the path becoming increasingly de rigeur with the defenders of the faith old-line media, he lashed out with a venomous follow-up editorial short on facts but long personal innuendo and, to borrow an increasingly over-used term, "smear." For a good sum-up of the drama so far, see Hugh Hewitt's run-down here.

Since that time, the fine fellows at Power Line have been doing everything they could through the power of their blog to shame Boyd into allowing them a response within the pages of the paper, including a bit of name-calling and the posting of embarrassing pictures. Fair enough! They were wronged by an old-line attack dog who hadn't banked on the power that new technology has given the average guy to fight back. All's fair when it comes to protecting your good name and harnessing the power of the blogosphere by keeping it entertaining is part of that.

It was all for naught, anyway...until today. Read their follow-up and Boyd's newest attempt at a response at the Power Line link at the top of this post. (Boyd's piece is ably fisked here, btw.) I think you'll find that the Power Line boys continued to up the value of their stock by a reply in substance, and Boyd continued to demonstrate the shallowness of his position by failing to do so. You can almost feel the frustration and discomfort of this dinosaur of the old media feeling that he should be able to respond with fact and reason, but not quite being able to figure out why he can't. The idea that the Power Line boys may be substantially right is too foreign a thought to be considered. The Boydosaurus is genetically incapable of rendering a dietary change, even as the clouds move in to block the sun.

Although this won't help me to crack their blogroll, I do have a friendly critique for the guys. From PL's last: "Jim Boyd is perhaps the most pathetic loser, and the most vitriolic Democratic shill, in the American news media." Gents, you are respected lawyers, published columnists and respected columnists. My advice is to have respect for your readers to sort things out and leave the histrionics to shlubs like me and other hangers-on out in the blogosphere. I have no reputation to protect. You guys, on the other hand, are better than that, and believe me, your column juxtaposed to Boyd's response does speak for itself. Further, you are now carriers, in a way, of the Bush re-election and the SwiftVet causes (Disclaimer: No direct relationship is meant to be implied between the two by this statement!) You did a great job and got your reply printed, now take a page out of John O'Neill's book. O'Neill has taken every brickbat swung his way like a man in a suit of impenetrable armor - responding to every attack with poise, class, character and reason - and it's worked for him in a big way, adding to his credibility. A friendly reaction from me (you guys asked, after all) - Power Line, you guys can do the same now, tough though it may be. Mission Accomplished.