The Hall of Mirrors

So, Ed Whelan of the National Review Online and the Ethics and Public Policy Center has outed noted political and legal blogger Publius, of Obsidian Wings. Here’s what happened:

Anonymous Liberal and Eugene Volokh called out Whelan for his (apparently to me; I am not a lawyer) ridiculous criticisms of Harold Koh and Sonia Sotomayor. Publius agreed with these posts and quoted them on OW. Volokh blogs under his real name, so there’s no way to punish him. I guess Whelan couldn’t figure out who AL, the original source of the quotation that piqued his ire, was, so he settled for outing Publius.

So, let me state for the record: Ed Whelan is a whiny-ass titty baby. He can’t take any criticism, especially repeated criticism from the same source, so he hopes to negatively affect Publius’s career. Whelan did not reveal a conflict of interest; he simply claimed that Publius was irresponsible abusing his anonymity (actually pseudonymity; I would expect a sharp legal mind such as Whelan’s to be able to grasp the distinction), then claimed the responsibility of punishing him.

Then, after being roundly criticized by pretty much everyone with a brain, he apologized. Sorry about that. I fucked up. Hope you don’t get fired!

Now, I agree that Whelan deserves some credit for figuring out that he did something wrong (with a little help from his friends). But seriously?

Anyway, this whole situation is dumb. Stay tuned for a more interesting post about anonymity and opinion on the internets.