Blog P.I.

Tonight at NRO’s The Corner, Byron York reports that the NRSC is sending out a press release holding MT SEN Dem nominee Jon Tester responsible for a truly crazed Daily Kos diary offering such incoherent gems as: “‘SCREW YOU, ISRAEL’!!!!!!!”

This is not the first NRSC release publicizing the netroots’ strong and early support for Tester, but it is the first one conceivably worth getting worked up about. And worked up they are, or pretend to be:

Jon Tester’s campaign website links to ‘Daily Kos,’ a radical left-wing web site. The editor of ‘Daily Kos’ has consistently praised Tester and even contributed to his campaign. The hateful rhetoric on ‘Daily Kos’ isn’t fit for a campaign for U.S. Senate, but sadly, Jon Tester has refrained from condemning it.

Yes, Tester’s site links to Daily Kos, as do untold thousands of blogs. And Daily Kos has untold thousands of pages, probably hundreds of new ones each day. And this is one post I’m sure Greenwald and Patterico (let alone Moulitsas and Tester) could agree to condemn, if they even knew it was there.

But it so happens that the Kossacks themselves did care to denounce this post. In fact, all but one of the 50 commenters did, and that was a digression about church and state. Other users appropriately tagged it a “Troll Diary,” with some responding angrily and others just making fun of it. Did the NRSC read this far? Would it have stopped them from sending out the release if they had?

And just how vital a member of the Daily Kos community is White on Black, the alleged troll in question? First of all, the account was registered only in the last week or so; we know this because the telltale user ID number is in the mid-94,000s. In that time he has posted 16 comments, all but two of which link to his four diaries. And here’s a brief rundown on them:

• His first post, dated two Sundays ago, asserting that “Sadaam [sic] in 1990 needed the ports of kuwait.” No troll rating, but only 8 comments and no support.
• Another spittle-flecked diatribe claiming the U.S. “betrayed Sadaam” [sic (again)], subsequently troll-rated.
• A rant giving “credit to Syria and Iran for staying out of this fight,” which rated one comment and a “Troll Diary” tag.
• The diary the NRSC apparently holds up as representative of dKos as a whole.

And here is a typical example of White on Black’s comment section contributions:

I’ve said this before! I am handicapped from an unfortunate accident in 2001 and have only one good hand and one finger to type with. It is hard and not the easiest thing for me to do,-typing. Is that all you kmow how to do is pick on people. I feel very sorry for you. You sound more handicapped in so many more ways than I am.

It’s impossible to tell what White on Black’s motivations really are, or if he is really a he, but I’d wager that he prefers Conrad Burns be returned to Washington this fall, and not Jon Tester. If nothing else, the NRSC has fallen for a prank.

To be sure, there are certainly posts to be found at Daily Kos that are highly unrepresentative, to say the least, of the average American or of the Democratic party’s desired image — and by actual members of the community. Linking the Bush family to Hitler? Check. Republicans-hate-democracy conspiracy theories? Check. Committed non-support of Israel? Check.

The upshot is that there probably is enough borderline anti-Americanism on the site to be a political problem, even if those are minority views. It’s hard to believe any reporter working for a daily paper would bother picking up this offering from the NRSC, but as more these releases go out, they’re going to have an impact.

York is right when he advises: “Look for more of this,” meaning more GOP groups tying Dem candidates to the unsavory views found on liberal blogs. Lord knows there are times when a candidate really should distance themselves from a particular blog. But this isn’t one of them.