The comments below Scarborough's post are even more bewildering than the post itself. Without any information to the contrary, many of the comments appear to have been submitted by a wide variety of liberal readers who agree -- or at least sympathize with Scarborough that liberal bloggers are hurtful smear-merchants who are successfully preventing Scarborough from contributing to the site.
This is how the Republicans manage to constantly dominate the debate. As soon as a liberal voice takes a forceful or sometimes angry approach, Republicans like Scarborough act all hurt and dismayed while laying down a well-crafted guilt trip about "hope" and "change" and "bipartisanship." The liberal quickly backs off -- even apologizes -- and then, after the dust settles, the Republican in question reverts back to red-baiting, fear-mongering, and calling people "dainty."
Adding... I just checked Scarborough's comments again and it's remarkable. Comment after comment with the general format:
"I'm a proud [liberal] [progressive] [Democrat] and I [love your show] [think you're exactly right] [appreciate your thoughtfulness]... I'm sorry that you have to endure [anonymous comments] [mean Huffington Post bloggers] because [you're not like Hannity or Limbaugh] [you wrote nice things about Obama last month]."
I wonder how Olbermann or Maddow or Hartmann would be greeted over at Free Republic or Hot Air.
(Incidentally, this isn't about Huffington Post comment mod policies or anything like that. Literally thousands of comments flood into that site every second, and they genuinely do their best to keep up.)
UPDATE: Case study. This comment:
Thanks for this column Joe, please continue "The Loyal Opposition" in the future.I'm a proud progressive, and I value respectful, intelligent and goal-oriented debate that includes everyone.Please don't judge those of us with progressive ideals by the responses from antagonistic readers, or by the sarcastic and sensationalist writings of some liberal columnists.Likewise, I won't lump you in with entertainers-cum-journalists like Bill O'Reilly or Rush Limbaugh. They favor self-serving hypocrisy, ignorance, and arrogance, because they need to attract listeners and sell advertising time, more than they need to help the national discussion.
That last part first. Joe Scarborough is on television for three hours every day and he just started hosting a new syndicated radio show. Yet he's not an "entertainer-cum-journalist?" Yeah okay. Furthermore, if you look at this commenter's profile, he's chosen to be a "fan" of bloggers Chris Kelly, Jason Linkins and me -- arguably three of the most sarcastic bloggers on the Huffington Post.