Continuing on the theme of the Left’s tendency towards scorched-earth tactics against people who agree with them some but not all of the time, Patrick R. Sullivan wonders in the comments to this Jane Galt post whether Harvard president Larry Summers will still be a Clintonian liberal when he’s through getting burned in effigy by leftists on the Harvard faculty.
On the other hand, while I think the reaction to Summers’ comments has been absurdly overblown, it’s just a bit simplistic to complain that attacks on Summers are inconsistent with academic freedom. It’s not unreasonable to argue that people with unpopular opinions should be secure in their tenured professorships but at the same time complain when such people become university presidents or department chairs. (Much like the reasons why the GOP was right to tell Trent Lott he couldn’t be Majority Leader anymore).
UPDATE: Gerry Daly has another example, wherein Kos gives the floor to a Democratic insider who plays the race card against Donna Brazile:
She’s cookin’ with heat, that’s for sure. But as usual, Donna’s fry pan contains more sizzle than steak. . .
Donna is to the party what Jeese, her mentor, is to the business community. She knows she can exact whatever she wants. . .
[T]he first “reform” action you ought to take is to show Donna the door. Her ‘Sister Soulja’ moment is long overdue.
There’s more there, some of it substantive and quite probably justified, but yet again Kos shows that he will use whatever ammunition you put in his hand, even against enemies in his own party. Brazile has, at times, shown that she’s willing to be civil, even friendly, with people like Karl Rove and Jonah Goldberg, which apparently makes her (like Summers) a heretic who must be burned. If you want to purge the likes of Donna Brazile from your party, be my guest. You’re gonna need a smaller tent.