There is a non-trivial population of left-blogistan that really enjoys being trolled.

It’s as boring now as it is every couple weeks.

I don’t think I could get all trippy about this, even if Obama said it on live TV.

If I wanted respect, I’d have finished filling out that Harvard application back in ‘72.

I confess I bristled at the word “pajamas,” but only because that’s wingnut blogging gear. Lefty bloggers sleep in their street clothes.

Lefty bloggers sleep in their street clothes.

No shit, I wish people would get these differences straight. We also don’t eat fucking cheetos, we smoke weed and then snack on Gardettos, original recipe. We don’t drink Mountain Dew, we drink over-priced designer coffee made from coffee beans that have been fermented by Obama’s innards and then shat out in a mass email and fundraising plea from MoveOn. Is that so hard to understand?

I don’t know what’s funnier: that they are freaking out over anonymous sourcing from a demonstrable right-wing fucktard, or that they’re claiming that they feel BETRAYED that a guy who ran as a consensus-seeking moderate is now governing as ... a consensus-seeking moderate.

If they got “defiant leftie” from Obama’s public statements and policy plans as a candidate, that’s their problem, not his. (I’d say a statement such as “I’m not against all wars, just the dumb ones” is pretty indicative of his mindset—though of course I have serious qualms that Afghanistan is one of those “dumb wars” now.)

And their claims to be the ones who “put him over the top” are as risible as they are offensive. I know white lefties love to claim credit for everything, but in fact, Obama won with a coalition that was AT LEAST as dependent upon black voters (many from conservative congregations, true) and Latino voters (ditto), old-school union members, rank-and-file Dems, moderate business execs, etc., etc. Seriously, these assholes need to provide hard evidence (I’m talking Nate Silver-level stats) that they were the most important factor in Obama’s victory. Otherwise, they’re just farting in the wind.

In the months I spent working in a local ward office for Obama, I’d say very few of my fellow volunteers were hardcore Kos readers, let alone anything leftier than that. Some of them really were lifelong Dems (lots of them in Chicago, after all) who would have worked just as hard for Hillary or Edwards because that’s what they do. Others were African American and Latino and other minorities who weren’t necessarily hard-left on issues, but felt Obama’s approach was the one that had the best chance of breaking through gridlock, and who for obvious reasons felt inspired by his story (just as I’m sure a lot of women who hadn’t been active in campaigns before got behind Hillary—of course, that’s not a problem, because they were using their noggins, whereas the ignorant darkies were just voting along race lines, right PUMAs?)

Leftie Blogosphere? You’re really not all that. And hey, maybe He’s Just Not That Into You, true. But you’re all so in love with the sound of your own self-aggrandizing, perpetually aggrieved voices that I fail to see why that matters.

Also, Soros hasn’t sent me my six-month supply of Cheetos yet, and I’m pissed!

What a flurry of old hen feathers. I do think Digby’s catch of previous suspiciously similar Harwoodisms is pretty sharp, but worst case scenario, what if a White House staffer dissed the lefty blogosphere?

First, they might consider that they’ve gotten under somebody’s skin over there, which is what gadflies are supposed to do, and second, there’s more than one White House staffer, and their opinions aren’t monolithic, are they?

So we have a dubious quote by a known axe-grinder, an unknown source, and the assumption that the White House moves like a gold-medal synchronized swimming team minus the nose-clips.

Actually, nose-clips wouldn’t be a bad idea at all.

In the months I spent working in a local ward office for Obama, I’d say very few of my fellow volunteers were hardcore Kos readers, let alone anything leftier than that. Some of them really were lifelong Dems (lots of them in Chicago, after all) who would have worked just as hard for Hillary or Edwards because that’s what they do.

True that, Oblamova.  In my neck of the woods, I worked with minorities of all stripes and upper-class whites who wouldn’t know a lefty-blog if they tripped over their patch cable looking at it.  Most were women and many dressed better than me.  I dare say I was the only “DFW” I ran across in my local DFA or Obama campaign groups.  Most also would have worked hard for Hillary.

I smell a rat in the Harwood source.  Either he’s lying or ran across somebody in the administration who needs to start finding another job.

As for the lefty bloggers who continue to insist they got Obama elected, they need to step off the pedestal and stop pretending they’re still auditioning for the blogger episode in West Wing (no offense to Duncan Black here).

How to say this tactfully? Oh, fuck it. There is a certain portion of any political party that isn’t happy unless it has something to bitch about. So great is the need to bitch among these big wet blankets, that if nothing readily presents itself, they will latch on to any chance comment, rumor or even idea and whine about that.

Lefty bloggers sleep in their street clothes.

Speak for yourself. I sleep naked on sheets of Egyptian cotton with the Soros Slave du jour.

Digby treats the whole anonymous source thing with the proper degree of skepticism but I like Booman’s take better. He accepts the quote at face value but just doesn’t give a fuck. He must not know that feeding a sense of victimization sells. The left blogosphere isn’t filled with hateful, bloody-minded racists but it’s as addicted to poutrage as Malkin and her foul ilk. Can’t fucking stand it anymore.

Also. Anybody else find it ironic—or in today’s climate, possibly sinister and revealing—that one of the few outlets that I haven’t seen mentioning this hoopla so far is Pajamas Media?

Lawnguylander, I was thinking of linking to Booman because I liked what he said so much. Jesus Squeezus, Lefties, One. More. Fucking. Time: None of this is about your Pwecious-Wecious Fee-Fees! Grow the fuck up! If you’re pissed about something Obama is doing, write letters! Talk to your Congresscritters! See if somebody who is more in line with your “progressive” ideals is running in a congressional or state race and start getting grassroots to change the game.

I mean really—what the fuck did these leftie bloggers do that was so groundbreaking that they feel they deserve extra-special care and feeding from the administration? Vote? Make a few calls? Knock on doors a weekend or two? Donate what they could? BFD. I did that. I know a lot of people who did that. I’d go so far as to say that the people who did that accomplished more than the members of the leftie blogosphere who spent a good portion of 2008 wringing their hands over some perceived “gaffe” or “tactical error” or another of Obama’s that WAS GOING TO COST HIM THE ELECTION OMG WE’RE DOOOOMED!!!!

We have all had our moments of not liking something Obama has done in that massive stretch of nine months that he’s been in office during the worst economy since the 1930s and while he’s been shellacked by Fox News as a Muslim Terrorist Socialist Nazi Who Hates White Culture. I have said repeatedly that he’d show a lot more stones by getting rid of DADT through executive order, as Truman did with integrating the troops, than by going through Congress.

But I don’t think I or my fellow campaign volunteers from across the spectrum were naive enough to think that that WE and WE ALONE were the reason he got elected. Christ, that’s like Amy Siskind taking credit for the NOW elections.

OK, childhood trauma crap is so fucking lame I almost feel bad for ragging on it. Almost.

I would help him conjugate his verbs, and it was the only time in the entire day he was exceedingly nice to me. The rest of the time he made fun of me in front of everyone.

So go hang out with the kid who makes fun of you in front of everyone and whispers threats when you’re sitting in class, numb nuts. Please, go. We’ll find a way to manage without you.

Unfortunately not OT:

Bashing the online left   (4.00 / 1)
saps the morale of Obama’s frontline infantry. Why you think that’s a good thing is beyond me.

Oh, now the leftie bloggers are the “frontline infantry.” Christ, talk about the “101st Fighting Keyboardists.” I’m sure all the black activists and union folks and oldsters who never go online except to check email but who still managed to wear out shoe leather working for Obama will be happy to know they once again Owe It All To the Great White Leftier-Than-Thou demographic. You know, the people who “ended the war in Vietnam” (except for that whole part where they didn’t.)

And of course the Poutrage Posse still doesn’t know who said this allegedly incendiary thing, or if they said it, and they sure as shit haven’t a made a cogent case for why my sphincter should be relaxing and releasing a Concern Turd over the kerfuffle. I think “Leftie Bloggers Mad Because Real World Treats Them As Badly As Jerks in High School Did” is pretty much a Dog Bites Man story.

Except, of course, it points to the biggest problem they have with Obama. Somewhere, they still seem to harbor this juvenile revenge fantasy of “I’m gonna tell those jerks off someday! You just wait!” And of course, they only “worked so hard” for Obama because they confused him with Adam Baldwin’s character in My Bodyguard and thought he would kick those mean ole nasty GOP asses for him.

Even though there was NOTHING in his rhetoric or style or policy statements to suggest that “telling the GOP off” was top of his priority list, even before everything fell to hell a year ago with the economy. That was THEIR fantasy, nursed over years and years of online kvetching, and he is denying them their vicarious ass-whupping and total vindication of their version of progressive values.

Who cares if black people waited hundreds of years for civil rights? White bloggers, The Only Progressives and Activists Who Matter, had to endure nearly eight years of disdain from Bush! That’s REAL pain, brothers and sisters!

On a somewhat legitimately depressing note, Harwood is awfully damn happy today. Whether the quote is legit or not, and assuming it is legit, whether it was given to him by someone relevant to anything or not, he was clearly looking to gin up a cablerific “Obama vs. the interwebz” story, and Hamsher/Greenwald/Open Left sure as fuck delivered for him.

Weeping, moaning and gnashing of teeth at Shakesville today. When the White House response made its way to the thread, Melissa sniffed that SHE certainly hadn’t been one of the bloggers the White House reached out to, although Hilary had, of course, wanted to hear from her. More than a tiny bit of ego involved there, I think.

Geez, I’d love the privilege to be disappointed that that the WH didn’t contact me even though my blog is also awesome.

On a serious note, this sucks. If there is contempt for blogger-activists, I share it, so I don’t give a fuck if it’s the de facto WH position. On the other hand, gay activists have every right to hit Obama on all sides and go shopping for another candidate if they want to.

Obv, the ambiguity of the quote and the compounding ambiguity of the “reporting” feeds into various unhelpful projections of hostility where none need be. Then I realize that the ambiguity is precisely what feeds the outrage, which is what feeds blog traffic—and I get pissed, again.

If these bloggers were in any way interested in “reporting” or “clarity”, they would actually point out stuff like this. Although, given everyone seems to be doubling down even in light of Harwood’s confession that “fringe” wasn’t actually used to describe the marchers I guess it’s safe to conclude that they really aren’t interested in reporting or clarity.

Goddamnit, HTP, will you stop linking to my picture?

And YAFB, you’re on to something. This is a wee bit orchestrated.

And I hope this is clear, but I too think gay rights activists have every right to demand faster action and to be upset if it’s not coming quicker (esp. DADT—DOMA does require congressional action to overturn.) But that’s not the same as “he’s not paying enough attention to MEEEEE and my awesome blog!”

I didn’t even go over into Shakesville because I knew my head would explode. Thanks for the DeLong link, YAFB. I’d tell the people freaking out “consider the source,” except we don’t know who that is, do we? So consider that you can’t truly consider the source, take a chill pill, and get back to working on shit that matters.