Wednesday, February 08, 2006
LOSER CLUB
Jim Geraghty on the relative political value of left- and right-wing bloggers:
Republicans can find strength and success by listening to their like-minded bloggers; Democrats can find strength and success by ignoring theirs.
Good call. Not many leftish Australian politicians pay attention to their online pals; a pity, because local leftoids have so much to offer. Consider:
* Gummo Trotsky, whose bungled document search led him to accuse Andrew Bolt of inventing a court’s findings;
* Chris Sheil, the celebrated Cretan;
* Tim Lambert and John Quiggin, who mistakenly concluded that Miranda Devine had fabricated a quote;
* Tim Dunlop, who isn’t the first source you’d turn to for in-depth research;
* Wayne Sanderson, who imagined he could charge for content lifted from the New York Times;
* Gianna, who believes that life under Islam is no different to “living in a Conservative run democratic society”;
* Mathew Henderson-Hau, who couldn’t get over the astonishing coincidence of the Pope being elected on Hitler’s birthday—despite the fact that he wasn’t;
* Antony Loewenstein, who claims to be an expert of the Middle East, but can’t work out the gender of prominent Israeli politicians;
* Margo Kingston, who spent $44,000 in 108 days running a blog;
* David Heidelberg, who can’t pick the difference between a massively-publicised, majorly-funded website and a cheap parody;
* And, just yesterday, Anonymous Lefty, who is almost as satire-challenged as Heidelberg. All these folks supported Mark Latham, of course. Speaking of whom, let’s see how Mark’s circumstances have changed:
February 2004: Riding high in the polls, gushed over by kooks, etc.
February 2006: Charged with assault, and laughed at by his former party:
As Mark Latham contemplated a pending court appearance on theft charges, his former Labor colleagues were laughing it up watching Mark Latham the mini-opera.
Like a Wagner-inspired tragedy, the central character of the piece sang lines such as, “Why does everybody hate me?” and “Why is everyone after me?”
“There were laughs all around the room,” said one member of the audience at the Canberra performance.