This Day in History: Reason's Own David Weigel Goes WaPo

April 6, 1814: Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba. In 1793: The Committee of Public Safety becomes the executive organ of the Republic, and the Reign of Terror begins. In 1830: Joseph Smith founds the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1982: The Estonian Communist Party bureau declares the "fight against bourgeois TV" a top priority. (Thanks, Wikipedia!)

And on April 6, 2010, Reason Contributing Editor Dave Weigel launches his new Washington Post blog, Right Now.

Weigel explains his mission thusly:

The goal of this blog will be to explain what the right is doing, thinking, and planning as it hurtles toward the possible salvation of the 2010 midterm elections. That's going to mean a lot of on-the-scene reporting, interviews with the people driving this movement, and close reading of the arguments making headway among the people trying to bring the Obama era to the quickest possible end.

The comment section is yours. Let's get started.

You heard the man. Go over and check it out, commenters. He's short on comments and he misses you guys.

Comments

[PR]

Congrats Weigs!

[Cosmotarian Overlord]

Nice job fuckface...get the smear machine warmed up.

[Rachel Maddow]

Never forget me, honey.

[capitol l]

explain what the right is doing, thinking, and planning as it hurtles toward the possible salvation of the 2010 midterm elections.

meh

[Nit Picker]

"Thus" is already an adverb. There's no need to add "-ly." Olbermann, for instance, uses this solecism all the time.

[Brian Sorgatz]

+1. Similarly, "crisp" is already an adjective. We don't need the word "crispy."

[Crisp Critters]

That's what we say!

[Tulpa]

Next you'll be telling us to say "use" instead of "utilize", "tell" instead of "communicate", and "help" instead of "facilitate".

Us word people have to have some way of separating ourselves from the monosyllabic masses.

[Mo]

Thusly has been around since 1865, you lost.

[Abdul]

The WaPo is giving out free subscriptions for every time a commenter uses the term "shill."

Sadly, it's the only way they can give away subscriptions.

[Citizen Nothing]

Those WaPo commenters are an interesting lot.

[Episiarch]

Ohh, sample some for me. I don't have time right now to go over there and look.

[David]

Here's a particularly good one:

How dare the Washington Post foist this rightwing sewage on their readers -- this disgusting racist propaganda garbage.

I hope this obscene blog dies a fast and deserving death, like the sick movement it's desperately trying to flog.

And send little Buffy there back to Stormfront where he belongs. Aren't you missing a regatta or something, Buffy? Isn't it time for a trip to the spa and a $500 haircut?

http://voices.washingtonpost.c.....l#comments

[Apologetic California]

...in bed.

[Episiarch]

This is about Weigel?

Wow, maybe I should start hanging out at the WaPo comments if they're this crazy. They make you people look semi-sane.

[marlok]

I've gotta check out his blog now, as I am a connoisseur of rightwing sewage.

[Colin]

Funny how both the left and right hate Weigel.

That nut from wnd took a hissy fit when Brietbart talked to him at cpac.

[Kool]

So, what I read is interpreted as the following:

*sticks fingers in ears*

NA NA NA NA CAN'T HEAR YOU NA NA NA.

Christ almighty, no wonder I want to punch sooooo many people.

all the time.

[Ska]

My friend sent me a link yesterday from thinkprogress and every comment is like that. I thought the whole "leftists think anyone who isn't a leftist is a racist" meme was hyperbole, but there were enough comments which were that in a nutshell to show that it isn't all that exaggerated.

[Tara Davis]

Quite possible the worst thing about the healthcare reform bill that the Democrats crammed down our throats is that it will sweep the Republicans back in to power too quickly for them to learn the lessons of their 21st Century humiliations. For the most part, the party is still run by people who thought the Bush Administration did a bang-up job running the country.

Personally, I think the party needs a couple more election cycles lost in the wilderness in order for the Ron Paul / Gary Johnson forces to stage a new Goldwateresque revolution.

[Tristan Band]

Quoted for Mother Fucking Truth.

[R C Dean]

Personally, I think the party needs a couple more election cycles lost in the wilderness

Sadly, I don't think we can wait that long for the return of gridlock.

Consider your scenario:

(1) 2010 - The Dems spend trillions of new dollars and take a long stride down the road to socialized medicine. They retain control of both houses. Republicans are baffled that their opposition to big government and government health care didn't deliver electoral results.

(2) 2011 - 2012. Encouraged by their continued control of the legislature, the Dems pass Cap and Trade, a Value-Added Tax, and bail out union pension funds and state budget shortfalls. Republicans begin to question whether continuing to push for smaller government is any way to get out of the political wilderness.

(3) 2012 and beyond. Retaining, still, both houses of Congress and the Presidency as Republicans continue their trek through the wilderness, the Democrats are convinced that this country has told them at the ballot box for three consecutive elections that big government is where its at, and act accordingly.

[Banjos Kick Ass!]

As if the US economy could survive at its current trajectory beyond 2012.

[Groovus Maximus]

Thanks RC, thanks a lot.

I would expect such testicular torsion from Balko; however, your utterly depressing and all to plausible analysis quite possibly just made me sterile.

[marlok]

A new Goldwateresque revolution would require another debilitating loss (remember '64) for Republicans that Democrats would view as a mandate to pursue another massive entitlement (think Medicare).

I don't understand how Goldwater's run did anything for limited government. LBJ was able to pass everything he wanted because of Au-H2O's punishing loss. A gridlocked LBJ would have been better than the combined achievements of the Goldwater revolution.

[cynical]

"A new Goldwateresque revolution would require another debilitating loss (remember '64) for Republicans that Democrats would view as a mandate to pursue another massive entitlement (think Medicare)."

Hell, the GOP would regard that as a mandate to sustain massive entitlements.

[LarryA]

LBJ was able to pass everything he wanted mainly in memory of JFK's assassination.

[Zeb]

The comments are pretty funny. It seems pretty evenly divided between people who think he is a left wing hack and people who think he is a right wing hack.

I think Weigel deserves some credit for at least trying to report something on the tea parties beyond what a bunch of knuckle dragging racists they all are.

[Tristan Band]

Granted, there are some knuckle-draggers. But, they're just the loudest, not the most numerous.

[CoyoteBlue]

You heard the man. Go over and check it out, commenters. He's short on comments and he misses you guys.

The only thing worse than the WashPost comments sections is the YouTube comments. I'll pass.

[BakedPenguin]

YouTube commenters are amazing. Even the ones who post on classical music videos are idiots.

Admittedly, not all of them. Still, it's disconcerting (no pun intended) to bring up, say, Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov and see shit like:

"OMG! That cunductor is such a spaz. And did you see that chellist? Hes so fat he musta eaten a coupla the violyn players. LOL!"

[ed]

They're our future. You can kill yourself now.

[TXLimey]

To be fair, they were most of our past as well. They just didn't have such a highly visible forum for their inane ramblings.

[dbcooper]

Was looking at a video of one of Dean Kamen's prostheses in use by a female patient the other day.

1st comment: Wow, what an amazing, life changing device, truly a blessing. 2nd comment: NICE BOOBS!!!!!

[SugarFree]

Go over and check it out, commenters. He's short on comments and he misses you guys.

Wow, Katherine. Did Weigal steal your lunch out of the office fridge all the time? You must really hate him.

[SIV]

Ol' Dave looks like he stole everybody's lunches.

[Dello]

In looking at the pic, why is there a stick up his ass?

[Atanarjuat]

Last time they posted this pic, I think it was P Brooks who posted the most hilarious caption, something along the lines of "he looks like somebody handed him that and said "here, boy, hold this while I take a piss".

[R C Dean]

He's short on comments and he misses you guys.

I seriously doubt that.

[Episiarch]

Weigel loves all of us, RC. Even you. Maybe not Gabe, though. And certainly not Warty.

[The Gobbler]

Not even Warty's mother love's Warty, even though she lets him fuck her.

[Warty]

Weigel loves me most of all. Fuck you, Weigel.

[iowahawk]

Daktari! The WaPo hires another intrepid explorer to report on the deep mysterious unexplored jungles west of the Beltway.

Did the Post provide Weigel with a Range Rover and tranquilizer gun for this dangerous safari?

[Ragin Cajun]

I think the big papers have had to cut back on such projects, with the cost of insurance and arranging security too high in this age of declining revenue. I think only the Economist has correspondents among the Red People these days.

[iowahawk]

Pity. Here's a tale inspired by the Post's last venture into the wilds of uncharted flyover country:

Heart of Redness

[Citizen Nothing]

I actually have an assignment for a travel piece from Iowa City. Maybe I'll just crib from Von Drehle's epic.

[ed]

Daktari! The WaPo hires another intrepid explorer

But will they give him an adorable chimp sidekick?

[Groovus Maximus]

Daktari had Clarence the Cross Eyed Lion.

[Lou Meengo]

Think that dude actually knows how to shoot that thing??

Lou
http://www.anon-resources.at.tc

[The Gobbler]

That Weigel pic rivals Dukakis in a tank.

[Jorgen]

Thinking the exact same thing.

[Colin]

If someone were to email that pic to Homeland Security, the FBI would be at door this evening.

[The Gobbler]

Done.

[Mike M.]

It's pretty incredible when you think about it: the newspaper that once helped bring down Richard Nixon is now paying money to professional concern trolls while the country swirls down the crapper.

And the media wonder why most of the country hates their freaking guts.

[Apologetic California]

How far out the left field is the MSM when you now need to assign a reporter solely for Rethuglicans? I think only the Anne Arundel beat gets its own special reporter at WaPo. Where's the exclusive reporting on libtards?

[Forbes]

Exclusive puff pieces on libotards is the warp and woof of the WaPo.

[P Brooks]

The goal of this blog will be to explain what the right is doing, thinking, and planning

In other words, "I'm going snipe hunting."

And that photo still screams, "Here, Sonny; hold this for me, while I go take a piss."

[Atanarjuat]

I really need to read all the way down before posting...

[Atanarjuat]

Still spot on, by the way.

[Jersey Patriot]

Caption: In this alternate universe, the Columbine kids lived.

[Mike]

WaPo comment threads are where C-Span callers go when they forget how to use a phone.

[?]

Maybe, unlike Reason, the Post is foisting Shilly's cretinous D-brand musings on us in good faith. I can imagine them taking one gander at that repressed-fag mall cop look he's got going and honestly, moronically mistaking him for One Of Us.

[Hazel Meade]

Somehow I think that a blog that reports on "what the left is doing" would be regarded as John Birch territory by all right-thing people in the media.

Yet somehow, reporting on what those right-wingers are doing is treated like an exercise in cultural anthropology. See the racist freaks in their natural habitat! Find out what sinister plans they have laid out!

[Ken Shultz]

"He's short on comments and he misses you guys."

Sure he does.

Like a root canal.

[Solanum]

Nice jeans, Dave. Couldn't find any with an inseam < 26"?

[No shit]

and the knees are well-worn. Hmm, wonder if he used his talent to get the job, when he worked at Reason?

[SIV]

And the right reacts to 'Right Now.'

He links to rightwing blogs, including Reason H&R, for their reaction to his new WaPo blog.Yup, libertarians ARE "rightwing" no matter how much some of you want to deny it.

[VikingMoose]

Congrats, Dave! You're gonna do great! keep it up!!