A Lose-Lose: The Outing of Publius

Mark of New Jersey

Mark is a Founding Editor of The League of Ordinary Gentlemen, the predecessor of Ordinary Times.

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18 Responses

  1. Jaybird says:

    “Ultimately, I just don’t see what Whelan was hoping to gain by doing this. There’s simply no benefit to anyone. ”

    I don’t think that “hope” entered into it at all. I really don’t think that “thinking” entered into it much. It was little more than a “from hell’s heart I spit at thee”. Hell, it wasn’t even that much. It was a “(screw) you”.Report

  2. Patrick says:

    I just don’t see what Whelan was hoping to gain by doing this.

    The satisfactions of revenge and cruelty are irrational, but they are satisfactions nonetheless. Now we see whether Whelan’s emotional satisfaction will have been worth the loss in respect from others who were inclined to think well or neutrally of him.

    I have read Bench Memos in the past. No longer.Report

  3. Patrick, Jaybird: I’m quite certain you’re right (the original title of this post was “Pure Spite: The Outing of Publius,” but I decided against it).Report

  4. Dan Summers says:

    Well, we’re all certainly talking about him more than we ever would have otherwise.Report

  5. angulimala says:

    He was trying to hurt someone who pissed him off.

    Patrick is right – it is the satisfaction of revenge and cruelty. Its all weak cowards like Whelan have.Report

  6. Patrick says:

    Publius Endures.Report

  7. greginak says:

    Whining Whelen’s excuse is even funnier given that the post Publius and others ripped him was for ignoring a basic reality( the supreme’s do consider policy) that he , as a lawyer and former gov employee damn well knew.

    He’s projecting onto publius his own faults.Report

  8. not publius says:

    “I decided just to ignore his latest act in a pattern of irresponsible conduct. But I changed my mind when I discovered that [publius] is a law professor.”

    How the hell does someone discover something – that no one else has discovered for over four years – all the while ignoring it? Does that stand up in court?Report

  9. Jon H says:

    Whelan’s pulling status on publius. He’s saying “reader, ignore what this twerp says, he’s just an untenured law professor at a podunk college, whereas I was on the OLC.”Report

  10. Jon H: 1. Apparently, Whelan has realized the error of his ways, which is good.
    2. That aside, that rationale still strikes me as pretty stupid – a law professor, even an untenured one, is going to have far more prestige than someone who is assumed to just be an associate at a random law firm. I could understand – though not support – Whelan’s actions were the latter situation the case.Report

  11. matoko_chan says:

    Jaybird’s right.
    All the right has are Anger Whiggas.
    Whelan spit damn at Publius before he thought.Report

  12. matoko_chan says:

    Yeah, your position is Whelan spit damn on Publius……MY position is that is all the right has are Anger Whiggas like Whelan. A clone army of puffy fingerpointing middleaged white guyz.Report

    • Jaybird in reply to matoko_chan says:

      My position is that Whelan, an individual, did a fairly jerky thing.

      I don’t see him as particularly representative of any psychological mindset, let alone representative of a group, let alone representative of a political philosophy.

      A guy can be a dick without being an example of “those people”.Report

  13. matoko_chan says:

    Ah, but my hypoth is that rightside leadership and pundits and radio/tv-hosts are experiencing the same formative forces that lead to the rise of ghetto culture and gangstah rappers……And the base is experiencing the same sense of disenfranchisement and disrespect that the leadership speaks to. That is why Levin’s book and Rush and Beck’s shows are popular.
    Their collective first impulse is to spit damn….because they are angry.Report

  14. matoko_chan says:

    Whelan is just a data point in support of my hypoth.
    😉Report