The Times They Ain't A Changin'

The New York Times takes full advantage to trumpet Ben Domenech's resignation as a liberal blog win and leave conservatives looking like dishonest, paranoid libera-phobes. And they take Domenech down another notch in the process - make that two notches.

They first pointed to previous comments by Mr. Domenech, who recently called Coretta Scott King a "communist."

... Mr. Domenech also said that he may have mixed up his notes with articles from other authors.

... He explained the passage that appeared to be copied from Mr. O'Rourke's book by saying that Mr. O'Rourke gave him permission.

Contacted at his home in New Hampshire, Mr. O'Rourke said that he had never heard of Mr. Domenech and did not recall meeting him.

"I wouldn't want to swear in a court of law that I never met the guy, Mr. O'Rourke said of Mr. Domenech, "but I didn't give him permission to use my words under his byline, no."

A spokeswoman for Regnery, Angela Phelps, said that while Mr. Domenech remained an employee, the company would look into the accusations.

Mr. Domenech said he received an e-mail message from Kathryn Lopez of National Review, putting him on notice that the magazine planned to review his previous work.

Glenn Reynolds, who writes the blog Instapundit, said the bloggers were "motivated by a desire to get" Mr. Domenech.

"They didn't like him because he was a conservative and he was given real estate at The Washington Post," he said. "Their goal was to find something they could use to get rid of him, and they succeeded."

Mr. Domenech addressed his detractors yesterday in a blog post on RedState.com, where he will remain a contributor. "To my enemies: I take enormous solace in the fact that you spent this week bashing me, instead of America," he wrote.

Real nice.

Comments

[Nigel]

One of the great disappointments here, apart from Ben himself, has been the strange, lemming-like "loyalty" displayed at Redstate.

Ben initially posts a piece thanking his friends for support, decrying the attack dogs of the left and claiming reasonable explanations exist for his supposed plagiarism. Allowing his friends and supporters to continue to voice their support and 'understanding' for behaviour he knew full well to be wrong, was indefensible. In offering stupid, easily rebutted 'explanations' (such as permission from O'Rourke, and his non-existent "inspired by" byline) he demonstrated himself to be foolish.

Finally, when it became apparent that O'Rourke would not lie for him and further evidence was mounting he made his 'full' confession, which should properly have been his first one.

Yet, in spite of being played, lied to and generally taken for a ride, the RedState crowd are still supporting Ben for his courage, strength against trumped up charges, his great prose (yeah, I know) etc etc.

I understand loyalty and friendship, but really... I think I read one solitary RedState post which basically said : Dude, you lied to us and let us pile on supporting you, now we all look like assclowns.

Strange, but sadly, true.

[Phoenix]

There are no winners in this thing. No one should gloat. This prima donna has shamed everyone - the conservatives who had hopes that there might be a chance the liberal press was opening up; the liberals have nothing to gloat about as Domenech could just as easily have been a liberal 'wunderkind'.

The shame lies in the fact that another opportunistic charlatan has managed, through prehensile tenacity and grave duplicity, to fool everyone. And how easily we are fooled! We all, liberals and conservatives, want so badly to believe that some 'good' will come to each cause, that we almost will it into being so.

Gloating? This incident should be a unifying event to all. That one fast-talking, fast-stealing nobody could trick so many on both sides............ that should enrage all of us to the point to be more wary of our instincts and to listen to them instead of constantly being on intellectual alert for finding fodder to continue this festering polarization between the parties.