Dave Neiwert/Sara Robinson/Orcinus/ Virginia Heffernan/Ron Paul/Jonah Goldberg

Posted Fri, Jan 11, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Or, when lefties attack. Back on December 24, Virginia Heffernan of the New York Times offered her Christmas gift to Ron Paul, desperately mainstreaming allegations from a U.S. Nazi leader (link):
[The Nazi leader claimed that] Both Congressman Paul and his aides regularly meet with members of the Stormfront set, American Renaissance, the Institute for Historic Review and others at the Tara Thai restaurant in Arlington, Va., usually on Wednesdays. This is part of a dinner that was originally organized by Pat Buchanan, Sam Francis and Joe Sobran, and has since been mostly taken over by the Council of Conservative Citizens.
Now, the post is prefaced with a correction (also in this December 26 entry), ending with this:
The post should not have been published with these unverified assertions and without any response from Paul.
Two days later on the 28th, Alternet published "White Supremacist Leader Insists Ron Paul Is Racist" (alternet.org/blogs/election08/71834/), which is bylined (literally) "Sara Robinson, Orcinus". The first links to her profile page at Alternet, the second to the site of David Neiwert. It contains similar charges to the New York Times post. Only at the very bottom is this:
UPDATE II Ron Paul's campaign spokesperson has refuted White's claims.
And, that update links to the NYT 12/27 post, i.e., a post with an earlier publication date. And, the NYT post makes it clear that it's an apology; the Alternet blurb does not. Even if the Alternet smear was written before the NYT post, it should never have been printed. And, the update should have been more detailed and placed in a more prominent position.

The extent to which Dave Neiwert himself was involved in the smear isn't known, but here's one definitely involving him directly.

In trying to debunk Jonah Goldberg's "Liberal Fascism" book, he says (dneiwert.blogspot.com/2008/01/buck-stops-here.html) that "[e]ach of these positions today is largely a tenet of the political right, and has been for some time":
-- Anti-Semitism

-- Racial separation

-- The quashing of civil rights for minorities

-- The destruction of federal government power

-- Anti-welfare

-- Anti-public education

-- Anti-homosexual

-- Anti-abortion

-- Anti-immigration
Is there some reason why anyone besides a complete Kool Aid drinker takes him seriously? A couple years ago I caught him trying to pretend that a bill that would block birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens was retroactive, but trying to smear those on the right side of things with that laundry list is even more disreputable.

Tags: 
ron paul

Comments

llamajockey (not verified)

Sat, 01/12/2008 - 18:36

Lonewacko, David Niewert is an embarrassment to the Left/Liberal Blogosphere and a complete partisan hack with a fierce Marcusian/Gramscian Marxist perspective on immigration and racial issues. I cringe when other liberal/left bloggers like Digby and Hamsher make the mistake of lending crediblity to Niewert. Nobody in their right mind should mistake Niewert for either a serious unbiased journalist or a liberal. What is really sad about the Left/Liberal blogosphere is that Niewert has a legion of admirers. I know some of them are really simply ANSWER & Neo-IWW loons and various Open Borders advocates. Others are simply young folks who are not that politically sophisticated. But is embarrassing to see so many kool-aid drinking partisan hacks on the left who support Open Borders and mass Amnesty because they mistakenly believe Latino demographics will spell decades of political dominance for the Democratic party and that makes up for the corruption and lose of national sovreignty. They really should be able to see through Niewert and reject him outright for his relentless Marxism. I personally do not find anything remotely Liberal about Niewert. A very strong left populist/liberal/progressive case can be made against illegal immigration and Open Borders. Especially if you believe that "progressive" implies non-partisan "Good Government" and a strong anti-corruption stance. But it is very hard to get these points across when armies of Niewert trolls go on the attack. Checkout the BS somebody like Bob Oak over at DailyKos has to put up with from the Open Borders loons. The far more respected liberal bloggers Glen Greenwald over at Salon and "html_Mencken" over at Sadly No! have delivered pretty good smackdowns on Niewert for his over the top smears of Ron Paul. Greenwalds is both a constitutional lawyer and a real journalist. Check out the shitstorm they stirred among Niewert fans. Also lookup Greenwald's article on Giuliani's rabid Neo-Con agenda and connections over at The American Conservative. I am no fan of Ron Paul myself. I think he advocates lots of kooky worn out Libertarian ideas. Yet I respect his strong constitutional prespective on the limits of executive authority and separation of powers. Ron Paul is an important and principled counterforce to would be Republican authortarians like Rudy Giuliani. Oh one last thing, I still think Jonah Goldberg AKA the "Doughy Pantload" is a pathetic example of wingnut welfare nepotism and bonehead. How the hell the National Review thinks he is worthy of sucking on their teats is beyond me. Still a strong argument must be made against those weak minded mushed head liberals who can not recognize loony marxism when it is stares them in the face or lack the strength of character to call it out. However, I would looks towards either a Ronald Radosh or the late Arthur Schlesinger Jr. who have made this point for decades Last, if I was looking for a

llamajockey (not verified)

Sat, 01/12/2008 - 18:53

Continued, If I was looking for a good "liberal" critical review of "Liberal Fascism" I would look to Glen Greenwald. The last place I would turn is David Niewert.

Tanstaafl (not verified)

Sun, 01/13/2008 - 23:48

Globalisation and open borders are not negotiable. Other than that you can have any president you want.

Someone (not verified)

Tue, 02/19/2008 - 19:17

Neiwert Corrections