Eddie Glaude lumped in Bill Clinton with

[The Magistrate]

59. Now This, Sir, Is A Line Long Familiar

When people encounter effective disagreement, some complain they are being 'shut down'. When this line is used, it amounts to a confession that one's position is insupportable. People disagree with me frequently, you may find them doing so in this very discussion, yet I have never replied to disagreement by complaining I was being 'shut down', and it would never occur to me to do so. I am confident my views, and arguments in support of them, are sufficiently cogent to persuade most who read them, against any opposition encountered.

Your reply does not identify any 'conspiracy theory' to which I subscribe involving how the defeat of Mr. Gore enabled Bush the Lesser to take office and subsequently to invade Iraq. I think it safe to assume you do not imagine that Mr. Gore, had he become President, would have invaded Iraq, even had he failed to head off Bin Laden's attacks (which a properly alert administration might well have succeeded in forestalling). So it is difficult to see what exception you take to the proposition that Mr. Gore's defeat led to the invasion of Iraq. It is also difficult to see what exception you take to the proposition that campaigning against Mr. Gore from the left, epitomized by Nader, made some contribution to the defeat of Mr. Gore in 2000.