A Fair Fight

Hugh Hewitt has a new book out (Painting the Map Red) and yesterday spent time on a panel at the Palm Springs Festival of Books. Here's a little bit of his report on the panel discussion in which he was matched up with several lefties:

Professor (Susan) Estrich and I did agree that the incredible level of venom on the left --not only undenounced by Democratic leaders, but actually embraced-- is a huge problem for her party. After Susan McDougal had gone on a bender of how she absolutely hates George Bush, and psycho-babbling Justin Frank had encouraged everyone in the pretty far left audience to unleash their hate of Bush, ("I'm going to stand up for hatred," he said to Estrich's amazement and my glee), Estrich admonished the crowd that their cheering of such rhetoric would only doom the party's chances.

I had already responded that I loved to heard hear Susan McDougal hate Bush, and that she should get a 24/7 cable channel. Professor Estrich instructed the crowd that I was right. But they refused her counsel. After all, what does it mean to run a presidential campaign? They know it is all about "truth-telling!"

And so it went for an hour that embarassed Estrich because the left is unhinged and doesn't know it.

As Hugh notes, several lefties to one conservative is a pretty fair fight, though in my view they may have to get a couple more lefties. Read his whole report on the event here.