Goldberg shoots the messenger

Jonah Goldberg is concerned. Why do so many people, when confronted with his very thoughtful, very serious argument, instead of considering it ... resort to "shallow, cliche ridden, attack- the-messenger stuff?"

That, of course, is why Goldberg responds to Matt Yglesias' review of his book with a retort that spends the first seven paragraphs attacking its author.

No, seriously. Seven paragraphs of telling the reader how much of a liar, lunatic, or left-wing nitwit his book's reviewer actually is. Let's recap:

First paragraph: "a poor book review says more about the reviewer than it does about the book"

Second 'graph: "I think he writes dumb things about Jews"

Third 'graph: "Matt has admitted that he tailors his views based upon the party line"

Fourth 'graph: "It's actually worse than that. [...] Yglesias advised Democratic candidates [to] “lie convincingly”"

Fifth graph: "real partisans who see noble lies as an essential part of their craft"

Sixth graph: "his review is a piece of theater used to disguise his own cognitive dissonance"

Seventh graph: "precisely the sort of religious reflex I discuss in my book [...] to preserve key aspects of leftist orthodoxy"


Thankfully, Jonah Goldberg doesn't do this sort of shallow, cliche ridden, attack- the-messenger stuff.