Still More Kosmerta

TNR's The Plank continues blow-torching Kos. Here, Zengerle notes the backstory on Kos' "Speak No Evil Of Me" email. Basically, a lot of other bloggers were asking for guidance, saying that the story could not be kept under wraps, etc. They were worried that their readers would start asking about it, and they didn't think they could keep it secret.

This posting by Mike Stark is illustrative:

If we can ignore it, great.

But I think that's hoping for too much.

Hell, our own readers are going to bring this shit up, let alone all the dimwits in Malkinland... You just can't expect to get anything by the netroots.

So. . . there are substantial questions raised.

...

These are direct attacks on Markos' and Jerome's credibility.

I guess we can leave it to them to formulate a response. But they need to have one ready.

...

Finally... what if it is true? We really need to hear from Jerome - regardless of whether or not this blows up. I will not be a republican rubber stamp. If Jerome was involved in some recent financial chicanery and he doesn't have an adequate defense, how does that make him different from any of the rest of the DC lobbyist/consultant class that will do anything for a buck?

I might be digging my grave here, but before I put my credibility on the line ofr anyone, I want to know I'm standing on solid ground. Jerome should provide answers or cut us loose to do what we need to do. This "movement" is bigger and more important than any one of us.

It was in this context that Kos helpfully suggested everyone just drink a tall glass of shut-the-fuck-up juice.

Various people noted Kos' seeming assumption that "What's good for me is good for the Democratic Party." He seems to now identify himself as liberalism's last, best hope, and any attack on, or even questioning of, him is, ipso facto, an assault on progressivism.

Zengerle writes:

[B]ecause I continue to ask these questions, Kos contends that "TNR's defection to the Right is now complete." How asking legitimate questions of and about two individuals can be construed as an attack on liberalism as a whole is beyond me. Kos evidently believes that, as The Democratic Daily put it, "the left c'est moi."

Michael Crowley then quotes Chris Sullentop, who you can't read, because he's part of the TimesSelect service, but Crowley has the good parts.

You know Kos' assertion that Armstrong will respond to these charges, forcefully, once the investigation is concluded?

That would seem unlikely in the extreme:

Armstrong has accepted a permanent injunction that prohibits him from asserting his innocence, or from asking his friends to assert it. The injunction states that Armstrong has agreed "not to take any action or to make or permit to be made any public statement denying, directly or indirectly, any allegation in the complaint or creating the impression that the complaint is without factual basis."

PS: Notice no one on the right tried to enforce a code of silence with regard to Ben "The Nech" Domenech. Charges were made that right bloggers felt they had to acknowlege and weigh in on, and so we did. Even the tenor of the earliest posts was along the lines of "I hope this comes to nothing, but it doesn't look good." The charges were dealt with honestly, not embargoed.

posted by Ace at 02:07 PM

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