This sort of thing plays well on Crossfire , I guess, but it doesn't make for thoughtful debate. And the conservative slot on Spin Room is taken , big guy. But let me address Lowry's appraisal of my recent article about John Ashcroft on the merits. This is a cowardly and weak-minded way to argue. But two wrongs don't make a right.
Effective critics seek out the weakest parts of a subject's argument and aim their fire there.
What's less fair is to zoom in on parts of your subject's argument and deliberately distort them, as Lowry has done. He then carts out Jack White's TV quote to cut my legs out from under me. Readers of my actual piece will know I was referring to Ashcroft's hearings before the Senate judiciary committee , during which all of his opponents conceded that he was not a racist. Jr. And if you're not the former, Lowry and the Republicans have argued, you must necessarily be the latter. Lowry's argument sounds stupid when stripped down like that.