Required Reading

Nick Kristof blasts his allies on the Left, for brainless stridency and, well, taking on the worst aspects of right-wing talk radio chatter:

The latest leftist silliness is the suggestion that Senator Paul Wellstone was assassinated. Liberal Web sites are suggesting such a conspiracy. Sample headlines: “Wellstone Murdered? Last Politician Similarly Killed Was Running Against John Ashcroft”; “They Shoot Leftists, Don’t They?”; and “Most Liberal D-Sen. Wellstone Plane Shot Down.”

The White House team that executed Vincent Foster must have struck again.

When my columns criticize the Bushies, I get torrents of e-mails cheering me on, but in terms so strident that they appall me. After I noted that Vice President Dick Cheney, while at Halliburton, did millions of dollars’ worth of business with Iraq, a reader wrote: “Dick Cheney is a maggot feeding on the decaying flesh of human misery.”

There’s a lot more red meat there for conservatives, and much to anger many liberals. And a refreshing call for reasoned civility. But I link to the column mostly because Kristof says much to the Left that I’d like to say to many of my so-called allies on the Right.