What could you do to me?
It's not new to me

Ah, good times. New Republic editor in chief Martin Peretz has dispatched his assistant, James Kirchik, to attack me in what I believe is Washington, DC's second most-popular free daily, The Examiner: "Matthew Yglesias, the insufferable enfant terrible of the liberal blogosphere, frequently refers to the 'Lobby that Shall Not be Named,' which supposedly suppresses any critique of the Jewish state . . . When prodded to identify an instance in which legitimate criticism of Israel has been labeled 'anti-Semitic,' the promoters of this meme come up with nothing." The joke is "The Lobby that Must Not be Named" like in Harry Potter, see? At any rate, Kirchik has a promising future in conservative journalism, having mastered the time-honored techniques of rising through the ranks without any demonstrated ability in fields other than arguing with straw men and making things up about his opponents. Apparently, he's already a bi-weekly Examiner columnist, and I know I always look forward to his pearls of wisdom on the Plank. UPDATE: It occurs to me to point out that I have no actual reason to believe Peretz sicced his assistant on me and I shouldn't have said that he did.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2007/02/what-could-you-do-to-me-br-its-not-new-to-me/41474/