Saner Than Thou

Cathy Young–who contemplated who was nastier, the left or the right, in Reason a couple years ago–reviews Dave Neiwert's review of Michelle Malkin's new book Unhinged and finds both unbalanced:

Malkin sets out to prove that while conservatives are commonly stereotyped as intolerant, extreme, rabid, etc., it's really liberals who are all of the above. And she collects some good examples of left-wing nuttiness and nastiness, from conspiracy theories on the "stolen" 2004 election to kill-Bush fantasies to Cameron Diaz suggesting that voting for Bush meant voting for legalized rape to her own (Malkin's) racist and misogynist hate mail. But it's absurd for her to suggest that there is no similar nuttiness and nastiness on the right, or that "conservatives zealously police their own ranks " against extremists and conspiracy wackos.

Cathy adds that "while Neiwert clearly strives to be fair-minded and acknowledges that there is a lot of ugly behavior on the left, he can't resist the partisan temptation to argue that right-wing nastiness is a lot worse." Can't we just agree that the left and the right each has its share of assholes?

I can't say the word on Malkin's book comes as a surprise. But I assume that she, like Ann Coulter, is only kidding, while counting on her fans and anti-fans to miss the joke.

[Thanks to Tom Miller for the tip.]