[Dean's World] Dean: And So It Begins

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Posted by Dean:
And So It Begins
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1154614181.shtml


   So, a blogger does something obnoxious in support of a politician
   she's raised money for, and [1]it makes national headlines,
   embarrassing the campaign she supports.

   Expect to see more of this. It will increasingly become normal. Which,
   by the way, it should be. You will be judged by the company you keep,
   and that includes bloggers, blog-commenters, etc. You use your blog to
   raise money for a candidate? Perfectly acceptable. You say or do
   filthy hateful things, or let others run around on your blog doing so?
   Expect your beloved candidate to be asked why they accept your checks
   or your friendship. This is exactly as it should be.

   I have no sympathy whatsoever for Jane Hamsher.

   I also repeat my prediction: over the last two years prominent
   Democrats have accepted money and endorsements from the Daily Kos
   crowd, and allowed that blog to be seen as the most important
   representative of the "net roots" of their party. Prominent Democratic
   politicians have allowed themselves to openly associate with it, even
   to occasionally write for it.

   But now the scrutiny is on, and blogs no longer fly under the press or
   political establishment's RADAR. And the amount of sheer lunacy and
   raw unhinged hatred that flies off that side on a regular basis
   cannot, indeed, should not, be ignored.

   Expect Republican operatives to spend the next few months combing
   every inch of Daily Kos looking for racism, hate speech, and paranoid
   idiocy, and to throw that in the face of any Democratic politician who
   ever took a dime from them or associated with Markos & Co. in any
   significant way. As election day draws near in November, expect to see
   it increase, and expect it to get worse in 2008.

   Oh, but don't think this is just a Republican thing. Expect Democrats
   to do the same thing any time they get the chance. The difference
   being that Daily Kos is sitting there as the biggest, fattest,
   juiciest target imaginable. There is no one Republican blog that is
   its natural equivalent. Democrats will do the same thing with any
   specific blogs that raised money for Republican candidates--and they
   should do that. It's their job. But nothing's going to be quite as big
   a target as Kos is going to be.

   The siren song of easy money and the illusion that blogs are merely
   idealistic grassroots action is going to crash hard on the reefs of
   reality, as people learn that you can't just spew hate as a way to
   earn money and expect voters not to take note of it.

References

   1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/02/AR2006080201655.html