Ben Smith writes:
Matthew Yglesias, who now blogs on the website of the Center for American Progress, wrote Friday that Third Way, another Democratic group, puts out "shallow" policy and that its domestic agenda is "hyper-timid incrementalist bull***." This isn't the worst thing anyone ever said about anyone else on the Internet ("incrementalist" hasn't always been a fighting word), but executives at the nonprofits seem to have taken it pretty seriously: In an unusual, unexplained move, the acting CEO of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, Jen Palmieri, posted an item to Yglesias's blog expressing the group's "respect for their critical thinking and excellent work product."
"[W]e look forward to working with them in the future," Palmieri wrote.
Like many of Yglesias's other fans, I'm concerned that this knuckle-rapping might have a chilling effect on the CAP blogger. And who would want to live in a world in which Matthew Yglesias isn't free to coin "clever" (if Yglesias does say so himself) appellations like "neo-Hooverite Republicans" or "differential financial power" (instead of, say, the more pedestrian term "economic inequality")?
Free Yglesias!
