Weak Assault

Andrew Sullivan characterizes my characterization of Libertarians as “silly.” Of course, Sully then goes on to accuse me of “defending or ignoring every abuse of government power under the Bushies.”

My take on wartime power grabs? Don’t play “slutty cheerleader for the Feds.” My take on Abu Ghraib? “Heads must roll.” My take on Mission Accomplished? A “fiasco.” My take on Bush’s buddy Sam Alito? “We’re about to get a new Supreme Court justice who never knows when to say no to executive power.” And those are just four links I stumbled across in the space of a minute.

Let’s face it. In Sullivan’s mind, it’s not enough to disagree with Bush, or to call him on his many blunders. Nope. You’ve got to hate Bush with the same cleansing fury Sullivan has. You know, enough to rinse your soul clean, after going all giddy about Bush in the awful days immediately after 9/11. I never went giddy for Bush then, so I guess it’s easier for me to keep my perspective today. And if I haven’t spent enough time criticizing exactly the things Sullivan wished I had, well, it’s my blog, and my opinion is: There are currently greater dangers abroad than at home. I choose to focus on those. It is, I think, possible to do so without having to check in first with the Daily Dish & Moral Rehabilitation Center.

I also seem, unlike Andrew, to have at least read and experienced the things I criticized today. Sully says he’s relieved that I no longer self-identify “as a libertarian,” which is an odd complaint coming from someone who never did. Anyway, had Sullivan spent five minutes in my archives, I’m sure he would have thought twice, or at least maybe once, before posting his little hit piece.

RELATED: Doug Mataconis took the same journey I did. Does that make him “silly,” too?

UPDATE: Much more here and here, from a couple guys who really know the ins and outs of this stuff.

ONE LAST UPDATE: Um, dude… Nick G runs a magazine called “Reason.” I run a blog called VodkaPundit. I know what claim I’m making. Does Nick? At “Unqualified Offerings,” I thought you’d catch that tiny little wee small detail. And it is possible to understand the Libertarian critique of the government’s war-making powers without agreeing with it. Truly! Not even all Big-L Libertarians need to goosestep to the exact same offbeat drummer.