[Read "In the Lion's Den," by Michelle Goldberg.]
I invited Michelle Goldberg to my Restoration Weekend for two reasons. First, because I have read her work in Salon and regard her as an honest reporter, and second, because I wanted someone at my Weekend who would 1) defend the left and 2) show my conservative audience that not all leftists are International ANSWER kooks (I was actually thanked by one of my guests, a major backer of New Gingrich, for inviting Michelle after it was over). Michelle should have asked me why I invited her before jumping to the conclusion that I had done so to have her "bash the left," which was the furthest thing from my mind (unless the left is International ANSWER).
Michelle is actually the third member of the Salon staff I have invited to my Weekends. My friend David Talbot came once, but was invited at least twice; my former editor Joan Walsh was invited at least once (but was unable to come). I have also had the Nation's David Corn as a guest panelist (to defend Hillary in 2000) and Pat Caddell -- who Michelle mentions as a Democrat-basher, but neglects to mention does it from a pro-Green perspective. I have also put on conferences that featured stalwarts of the left like Betty Friedan, Danny Goldberg, Gloria Allred and others.
The reason I do this is because I welcome dialogue, both for obvious political reasons and also for personal ones (been there, done that). That's why I treated Michelle to an all-expenses-paid weekend at a four star resort, knowing full well she would file an attack on us in Salon. Maybe Salon will be inspired to feature a left-right debate on the war as I have on Front Page. (Or maybe Salon already has and I missed it).
Michelle also dismisses my new book, "Left Illusions," as an "obsessive catalog of the political sins of liberals," whereas in fact it is an examination of the history of leftists who killed 100 million innocents in peacetime, in the name of a discredited illusion (socialism) -- and who are making the same mistakes in regard to the war against terror in Iraq as they did during the war against communism in Vietnam.
The American withdrawal from Indochina that the left so ardently wished for resulted in the slaughter of 2 million Cambodians and Vietnamese. An immediate withdrawal from Iraq will result in a similar slaughter, but this time the corpses will be in New York and Washington and San Francisco.
Ideas do have consequences (but I only remember saying that once at the Weekend).
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