I'll tell you, I may not agree with Jim Hoeft on very much politically, but this is courageous.
As human beings go, I'm pretty fallible. I occasionally get caught up in the moment and do things I regret later. So, I'm sorry.So, what am I sorry for?
For example, last year I wrote that I thought Jim Webb was using Harris Miller's Jewish heritage against him through a caricature and then was doing the same through the attacks on George Allen for his Jewish ancestry. I called the whole tawdry scene "jew-baiting". Probably not the best choice of words. And I am still being criticized for them.
It was stupid. I'm sorry.
I wrote those words on a Web site dedicated to George Allen's re-election: Allen's A-Team. On that site, some of my fellow contributors got a little carried away with their characterization of Jim Webb early in the process. I never wrote on the site again. But I never publicly criticized the process, at least that I can recall. So, I will forever be labeled as being complicit to those activities.
I was not active in condemning the posts. I'm sorry.
There's a lot more, including some commentary on the Blogs United conference controversy involving Eileeen Levandoski of VB Dems, as well as another controversy involving a story Jim wrote on Phil Kellam. This is truly an extraordinary post, no doubt about it, and I commend Jim for writing it.
[UPDATE: I was thinking more about what Jim wrote, and it's obvious that some of the "apologies" are sarcastic non-apologies, like "For choosing principle, this time, over partisanship, I?m sorry" and "For listening to both sides of an argument and reporting facts, I?m sorry." I've got to say, the mixture of real apologies and sarcastic non-apologies in a single post makes it a bit difficult to know for sure what's going on. I hope Jim clarifies.]
So even though I had quit blogging, he asked me to do some occasional posts. By doing that he became one of the people who enticed me back to the blogosphere. So did Lowell and Ben Tribett.
It's probably why I still am loyal to Jim as well as to Ben and Lowell and why it was so wrenching for me when things erupted across the blogosphere recently. I like, admire, and respect all of them.
Jim is human, he's fallible. He makes mistakes and has failings like all of us. But that piece blew me away. And I'm proud of Lowell for picking it up too. Great catch.
And by the way, you might actually agree with Jim more than you think. He sometimes surprises.