Delawareliberal: Even if we don't look, it's still there

The volume of silence at Delawareliberal over today's dramatic events--jason firing Donviti, Delawaredem quitting in protest; jason and nemski having words--is deafening.

The original deleted post about Donviti leaving, while deleted, can be found here [h/t Mark H.]. I think there was only one more comment made after the cache drop before the post was deleted.

A second post, Nancy Willing alerted me, was also deleted, this being an Unstable Isotope post titled Celia Cohen Unmasks the Hustler who would be Auditor. Nancy put the gist of it in my comments section, and while I have not been able to unearth the cached version of it, you can verify its original existence at Blognet News here.

Pandora, Unstable Isotope, and jason have all been posting throughout the day in what seems like a dogged attempt at normalcy, but after this morning a number of the usual bloggers (liberalgeek, nemski, and cassandra to cite three) have not made much if any appearance.

jason himself has made a few additional cryptic comments and then gone silent.

Macho Comacho has chimed in with unseemly and frankly obnoxious glee [I am linking to MC's comment here; I will not link to his excremental pseudo-blog]; I go with RSmitty's assessment of MC:

Personally, I think Macho is a spineless dick, whether I truly know the person or not.

Even Resolute Determination has taken notice of the incident.

That RD posting, by the way, has drawn a second strange comment from DEConservative(EvanQ) who has now twice made this rather bizarre accusation against donviti:

If you’re a person who, I dunno shows up to throw rocks at someone’s house like a little kid, be man (or woman) enough to take the confrontation you’ve brought on and face the consequences of your actions.

The comment is a milder reprise of one that Evan posted a few days ago at DL:

So why then when I confronted you on the phone after you threw rocks at my window and called my wife and kids names online did you back down and just hang up? I even invited you to visit me anytime you wanted to in order to discuss things but again you hung up. You are nothing but a punk so stop pretending to be Billy Badass. Otherwise back up your talk with some action punk.

This sort of strange talk and unverifiable accusation is exactly, I suspect, why some people prefer to remain anonymous as bloggers. It borders on harassment.

The question I have to ask myself is whether or not this all has anything to do--at least indirectly--with Delawareliberal's series on the Caesar Rodney Institute, as Delawaredem obviously did a couple weeks ago:

For example, Burris used outting to silence Kavips and his opinions of CRI and those involved with it. We will now be increasing our coverage and criticism of CRI. The acceptable response to that criticism and coverage is to deride it if you wish, defend CRI if you want, or to call us name. The unacceptable response is to silence the criticism by outting the pseudonymous critic.

Given the Delaware way, it's frankly possible. And kavips remains silent to this day, despite increasing imprecations from the rest of us to return to the fold.

I will admit that I discounted that potential connection because, quite frankly, I discount a lot of what Delawaredem writes because he spends a great deal of time projecting his own behaviors onto others.

An example, from the same DL post quoted above:

It is an assine justification, and I will tell you why: because all you have to do in response to an insult is to insult me right back. And you right wingers do that all the time. We here at Delaware Liberal are called loons, fascists, Nazis, idiots, baby killers, etc. We are not going to complain about the names you call us, so long as those names are not racist or sexist.

Sounds good, except when you visit some of DD's own rhetoric at the Daily Kos over the past few years, like these gems:

Mariscat is a cunt of the first order.

by Delaware Dem on Thu Feb 01, 2007 at 01:11:56 PM PDT

---

But Mariscat is a bitch, a whore, and a cunt. Whatever derogatory term you want to use, use.

by Delaware Dem on Thu Feb 01, 2007 at 01:31:58 PM PDT

To which a diaryist with the pseudonym Miss Blue responded:

I have posted this offensive commentary in different diaries when the issue of women and violence are being discussed. Crickets. It has never really been addressed, as the poster who made these comments is still posting.

I don’t care what precipitated the comments or who was angry. The fact remains when someone is allowed to post this kind of language, it should affect all women.

Deal with it.

It has become increasingly difficult to take Delawareliberal seriously over the past several months as the threads have often degenerated into little more than serial name-calling (and penis-match challenges). Admittedly, a large part of this level of response has been driven by equally uncivil and tacky rightwing commenters.

There is good content there, substantive coverage of local political issues, and even--at times--world-class snarks.

But more and more lately I find myself clicking on DL not to find out what's happening in State politics, but to indulge the same sort of guilty prurient curiousity that made Jerry Springer a ratings sensation for so long. This has the unfortunate effect of causing me (and, I suspect, others) to discount more thoughtful pieces by Pandora, Cassandra, or UI--and to pine for what almost never appears any more: a substantive Liberalgeek post.

For awhile it seemed as if Delawareliberal was poised to break out of mere blogdom into a more significant status within State politics, with radio-hosting opportunities, charity events, and talk of MSM advertising to drive traffic. The new look seemed calculated to head in that direction. I sincerely hope they get there, because their trailblazing could be beneficial to all the rest of us.

But as a community we can't sit around and pretend that nothing out of the ordinary is happening at Delawareliberal, and since they apparently won't (or aren't ready to) talk about it themselves, somebody will have to keep providing the space to do so.