Stephen Bainbridge replies.

This is the e-mail I sent Stephen Bainbridge:

Stephen,

Why did you delete all of the comments under your post in which you
misrepresented Sen. Durbin's statements on the Senate floor?

There were a lot of thoughtful, factual rebutals to this claim.

Why did you take them down?

Here is his response:

Stated Policy: On all of my blogs, I reserve the right to delete comments (or trackbacks to sites) that are off-topic, uncivil, obscene, racist, sexist, or just because I’m feeling cranky, and to ban those who make them.

Candidly, I was feeling cranky. In retrospect, a mistake.

I'll let you decide if that explanation is sufficient. I'd prefer if Bainbridge admitted that smearing Durbin with a Limbaughesque distortion was a mistake.

UPDATE

Bainbridge has also updated his blog. He writes,

When I checked this post and found a lot - not all - of posts that qualified as, at least, uncivil. Being in a cranky mood, I deleted them. In retrospect, I might have been a bit hasty. But, to borrow a favorite Ronald Reagan quote, I pay for this microphone.

I don't remember an uncivil comments -- I recall quite a few substantial rebuttals of Bainbridge's claim. But we can't judge that now that Bainbridge has deleted them.

On the other hand, I think repeating objectively false, base partisan accusations against a US Senator is pretty uncivil.