Tas, Instapundit, Atrios and More

A couple of days ago, I linked to Tas at Loaded Mouth and a discussion about the differences in treatment small bloggers get on left and right. Tas compared Instapundit's preference for helping and linking small bloggers of all kinds (something I experienced myself a year ago) with Atrios "get the fuck over yourselves" snottiness.

Lo and behold, Instapundit then proved Tas' point for him by linking his post and starting an Instalanche of hits and a very thought provoking comments thread, much of it provided by rightwing bloggers brought to the thread by Instapundit's link.

Tas then goes on to summarise his arguments and some of the salient comments here.

Now many regular readers will know I don't have a terribly high opinion of Atrios. For one of the reasons why, look no further than one of his posts today. A post entitled "Wonk Off" where he lambasts Kevin Drum and Tapped for wanting more political theorising and liberal policy making on blogs.

I've said this before, but there's just little point in detail-oriented grand policy proposals when Bush and Republicans are in office...If our team actually had some power we could be debating the merits of various universal health care proposals, or considering just how large a minimum wage increase might be appropriate, or various other wonky things. It would be good fun...I'd like a chance to spend more time talking about how policy matters, but the space just isn't really there right now.

I fucking kid you not!

Now the truth is Duncan couldn't wonk if his life depended on it nowadays. He's a snark and link engine, nothing more. But talk about handing the Right their talking points... "Atrios says not only does the Left have no new ideas, it shouldn't have any new ideas!"

Jeebus, the guy takes my breath away.