Chait and Me

There's been a little dust-up between the progressive blogosphere and New Republic writer Jonathan Chait over this column he wrote that basically says "Joe Lieberman's a really bad senator but I hope he wins because that would embolden the wacked-out ignorant angry Left." This insult was met with a predictable response, followed by Chait writing that the anger over his column PROVED that the Left was angry. This is like punching someone in the nose, seeing them fight back, and saying, "I told you they wanted to fight me!" Greg Sargent calls it blog-baiting.

Chait's kind of an odd guy. I went to college with him, and at the daily newspaper he had a column that was little more than a ripoff of Dave Barry, with no political thoughts in it at all. We ran a parody in our college humor mag that used the phrase "I swear I am not making this up" over and over.

I also knew him through friends, and he was nice enough, although a little insular, like most writers.

He pretty much went right from campus to the New Republic, so maybe that's the disconnect. I couldn't believe he showed up in bylines with Stephen Glass, because he was probably 2 years out of college by then, tops. I generally like his work, it's usually well-reasoned and well-argued. But the "how dare you storm the gates!" tone makes me think his life experience is limited outside Washington. Chait was the writer of the "Diary of the Dean-o-Phobe" in 2004, shrieking that Dean's nomination would kill the Democratic Party. We'll never know. But certainly he's someone that believes that the party should work from the top down, not the ground up; that the party should change from Washington out, not the grassroots in. This is classic DLC "we know better than the rabble" thinking, but Chait mistakes everyone in the blog world as an ideologically obsessed nutcase. There's a lot more nuance than that, and I'd argue the blogs focus a lot more on strategy than purity in policy.

He's a good voice for the party, better than most in Washington, but the whole blogtopia/outsider thing is his weak spot. Instead of fearing the worst, I don't see why these types don't work with the netroots for the best. We're the most committed activists in the party. We're practically the only ones that read your columns. We both share the same goals. There's no need to put up a wall. People without a DC address CAN have a few ideas, you know.