Trademark double-standard

Glenn Greewald is on a roll! I've already commented twice on his article on the nature of "Conservatives" and their criteria for casting the "liberal" epithet and his follow-up . But in a posting at Crooks & Liars he said that he thought that Glenn Reynolds...

"has an obligation to either denounce or defend Coulter’s comments [...] based on the fact that Reynolds routinely lectures Democrats on what he claims is their obligation to denounce "extremists on the Left" – even when the extremists in question are totally fringe and inconsequential figures who have nothing to do with Democrats, and -- unlike Coulter here -- don’t have huge throngs of followers and aren't invited to be the featured speaker at the most important political events of the year."

Well, he seems to have touched a nerve, and Reynolds, who like most wingers can dish it out but can't really take it, has written to Greenwald to complain. However, Greenwald, in what has become his trademark, articulate and reasoned manner, puts him in his place. Says our Glenn:

I wrote my post urging that Reynolds be asked about his conspicuous silence concerning Coulter only once: (a) several days elapsed after Coulter’s speech and Reynolds said nothing to condemn it, and (b) I began receiving e-mails pointing to posts written by Reynolds where he piously demanded that Democrats not remain "silent" in the face of intemperate remarks by far less important figures than Coulter.

[...]

(1) I did not argue that Reynolds has an obligation to denounce Coulter's comments on the ground that I think that everyone in the world has the obligation to jump up and denounce every repugnant comment. I argued that Reynolds has this obligation here because Reynolds himself has previously argued for that standard and applied it to Democrats -- by, for instance, condemning Democrats who failed to denounce the super-significant, iconic "Democrat" Ward Churchill.

Thus, with regards to Reynolds, I'm not arguing for a standard that imposes an obligation on everyone to denounce offensive comments. I'm arguing that Reynolds has that obligation himself because he imposes this obligation on others. I think that point was very clearly expressed in the post, but please - anyone else who wants to defend Instapundit here, recognize and address that point, since it's the whole point of the post.

(2) If people want to argue, as Joe did, that Coulter is just some fringe, irrelevant figure whom Republicans detest, then it really is incumbent on them to explain why millions of Bush followers buy her books, why they cheer on her hateful, violence-advocating rants, why she is one of the most featured pro-Bush pundits on Fox, and why she is one of the featured speakers at the most important conservative event of the year. Coulter has a vast and enthusiastic following among Bush followers and is treated accordingly. If she's "objectively pro-terrorist," as Reynolds claim, shouldn't this not be the case?

[...]

Contrary to Reynolds' claim that he "tend(s) mostly to ignore Coulter," and contrary to his defenders' insistence in the Comments section that he has a long and clear history of denouncing her, what he actually has -- as this Comment from Y.G. Brown demonstrates -- is a pattern of linking to Coulter and/or promoting her latest ventures, such as her blog. So, here we have someone promoting and linking to the ideas of a reprehensible hate-monger, who simultaneously lectures Democrats about how they are morally shameful for failing to denounce obscure, irrelevant extremists.

Truly, the hypocrisy of Bush supporters is almost limitless and it has consistently been one of their most distinguishing traits. I've written about this before here and here.