The Brittle Hum of the Republic

Noted by Greg yesterday morning:  http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/signing_off_–_farewell_tpmers.php

And we get two conservative comments on this personnel matter.  First, Michael Goldfarb over at the the Weekly Standard’s ‘The Blog’ :

Greg Sargent, the prolific TPM reporter, announced today that he’s heading to the Washington Post to run a new blog. Sargent is an unrepentant Democratic partisan, which means he should fit in well with the staff at the Post, but also a top notch reporter. During the campaign, Sargent would ping the McCain press shop with questions all day long. Because TPM is so overtly partisan, he rarely got the answers he was looking for, but for his persistence, if nothing else, Sargent earned a grudging respect from the McCain staff.

Sargent pretty much carried TPM over the last year, and it’s not clear to me how that site survives in its current configuration during a Democratic administration (which they have no interest in investigating) and without their best reporter. Still, for online partisan reporting, TPM set the bar pretty high this election. Republicans have no equivalent outlet. Any strategy to revive the party’s fortunes will require developing the kind of online infrastructure the Democrats now have in place, but you can’t do that without a bunch of right-wing Greg Sargents.

Aside from the pot/kettle myopia here and the “Sargent carried the TPM” insult to Josh and crew, there’s the dismally block-headed conception of the WP staff as liberal or leftist.  Are there purple trees and flying hippotpotami on Goldfarb’s home planet, one wonders.

A second conservative comment comes from Erick kErickson of RedState.  But let me pass on what Crooks and Liars has to say about it:

Erick Erickson of RedState
Pauvre petite Erick. He doesn’t have Sargent’s mad skillz and is a little jealous.

Greg Sargent was with the left-wing Talking Points Memo. Now he is with the Washington Post.

I’m sure Greg Sargent is good at what he does, but I’m also sure the Washington Post would not even consider hiring someone directly from the right-of-center blogosphere.

The Wapo already has Krauthammer, Michael Gerson, Fred Hiatt, George Will, Novak, Richard Perle, Dana Milbank and a host of other conservatives writing for it. It doesn’t need another.

But it should be noted that the WaPo also tried hiring a conservative blogger first – Ben Domenech of RedState. So much for Erickson’s memory and the WaPo’s not even considering a wingnut hire.

However, Domenech quit after 3 days because of allegations of plagiarism. Oh Dear. As Matt Y writes: “What the right lacks are people with the skill to do the job.” Erickson just proved that with his fact-free rant.

http://crooksandliars.com/

Indeedy.

Update note:  meant to add this note here but just remembered now.  The inclusion of Dana Millbank in C and L’s list of conservatives at the WP is flat out wrong.