Blacklisting and Conservatives

Jonah Goldberg cannot resist the usual crack. Yes, I was led to believe by Politico that Elizabeth Edwards was in a serious medical state and that the campaign would therefore be suspended. That information turned out to be premature. We found out, as Edwards explained, that subsequent testing relieved many of their worst, earlier worries and so they were going to press on. I think the decision in both cases was admirable. If she was seriously sick, it was right to suspend the campaign. If she can carry on, I think it's admirable to carry on as well. There is no self-contradiction in my views, just a change of facts. A blog reacts to facts as they arrive. When the facts change, a blog can change its mind. What else am I supposed to do? But, yes, I also think a lot of the Edwardses. I think they're a class act. I'd have supported them in either decision. I actually believe them and trust them on these questions.

But here's a comment worth noting:

I think I've been pretty good about not posting much about Andrew Sullivan.

What can this mean, except a petty sand-box approach to journalism? I disagree with many people at NRO but I always link and write and even praise when it occurs to me. In contrast, Jonah's comment suggests an actual informal policy of blacklisting this blog and its arguments at NRO. Blacklisting others is not, I think, a sign of a movement's intellectual health. It was done to Bruce Bartlett's book as well. NRO spent much more ink on D'Souza's excrescence than on the serious and increasingly salient critiques that Bartlett and I have made about the Bush administration. Again: the motivation, it seems to me, is pure group solidarity and the policing of movement orthodoxy. The more dangerous and accurate the critique - especially before an election when it might actually make a difference - the more it should be ignored; the more loopy and extreme the argument, the better an occasion for positioning. But one day I think most conservatives will realize that Bruce and I were right on key issues - on religious extremism, fiscal irreponsibility and civil liberties - and had the balls to say so when it mattered. The same, alas, cannot be said of Jonah "Liberal Fascism" Goldberg.