UPDATEDx2 — Why is Charles Johnson continuing to libel Stacy McCain?

Why is Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs continuing to libel Robert Stacy McCain of The Other McCain? That is the question that popped into my mind as I was waking up this morning.

Then I had another thought: isn’t it a remarkable coincidence that CJ began his vendetta against Stacy just after Stacy and Dan Riehl succeeded in shutting down the foremost lying liar Leftie bloggers who were the origins of so many lies about Gov. Sarah Palin? Just as Gov. Palin put herself in a position to fight their libels by stepping down — the grounds for libel are different for private citizens — and just as Dan Riehl and Stacy McCain proved that unflattering amounts of sunshine were going to flood down upon the blogs and lives of the lying liar anti-Palin bloggers — suddenly Stacy McCain is under relentless and groundless attack.

Hmmmmm, I thought to myself. Hmmmmmmm.

So I called Stacy to tell him I was planning to write a post asking whether Charles Johnson is being paid to conduct this campaign by Obama’s post-election minions, Organizing for America, and he told me he didn’t think so. He was very generous about Charles Johnson’s motives for trying to destroy him — Charles Johnson used to be king of the blogosphere, and brought down Dan Rather (couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy!). Now he’s “Charles who?” Now highly respected bloggers, one-by-one, over the last few months have been announcing their opinion that Charles Johnson is crazy and not someone they respect any more. They are severing their connections and taking Little Green Footballs out of their blogrolls. Stacy had more detail — being Stacy — involving the post 9/11 blogosphere, and the elections in 2004 and 2006.

However, I used to be a reporter, too, and being more recently from the Left, I have a more suspicious nature. I urge bloggers on the Right to figure out that this is a battle where we have to unite with Stacy and fight with him and for him, first because the accusations against him are not true, and second, because we might be the next target.

Right now I think Stacy should be consulting libel attorneys because Charles Johnson is knowingly lying about him to destroy his reputation and career.

Update, 9/13/09: Peter Davis of Shakey Pete’s Shootin’ Shack has some thoughts on CJ’s use of the “ransom note” technique of character assassination (please go read his entire post):

Seems that Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs fame has now called out R.S. McCain as a racist, with short snippets of quotes, quotes when they are put out more fully seem not racist at all. One quote, which seems more problematical, is actually from someone else entirely.

I wish someone would try that with me, in a slightly different way. Why with short snippets of me and longer quotes from other people entirely I could be a well-known math genius, a financial guru and who knows what else. Then with somebody smart to write the speeches I could hit the lecture circuit and be famous!

Dan Riehl of Riehl World View does not esteem CJ’s journalistic powers since he didn’t even do the thing I gave him credit for (bringing Dan Rather down):

Seemingly deranged blogger Charles Johnson employs an ugly and deceptive tactic in an effort to smear Stacy McCain again today. I guess without the Freepers who actually discovered the RatherGate forgeries, Crazy Charley just isn’t very good. Oh, today Crazy Charley has also discovered that the 9/12 Protest logo is of communist design. Yeah, that’s how ugly and nuts he is now.

Update, 9/15/09: Charles is in a hole, yet he continues to dig. Powerline could have quietly dropped him from its blogroll on Sept. 10, but instead felt obligated to announce it and explain. Now Charles has made false accusations against the highly regarded Jim Hoft, aka Gateway Pundit, which are detailed here in Jim’s reply. Founding Bloggers has the story on Charles’s announcement that he has removed from his blogroll Pajamas Media, a group blog he helped found with Roger Simon.

Charles and I have common ground on one issue: both Creationism and Intelligent Design are religious beliefs that should not be taught in schools as science. Little Green Footballs will stay in my newsfeed because Charles is my best source on whatever fresh mischief social conservatives are up to in trying to appropriate the apparatus of the state to have their beliefs taught as facts in order to force their religion on others. This is the mirror image of what liberals do when hijacking textbooks and school curricula to force the worship of big government and political correctness. Both are wrong.

Update, 9/15/09: Somehow I didn’t make it into Stacy’s round-up of bloggers who are standing by him and defending him against Charles’s specious accusations, but I can be included in his trackback list by linking it here. And, I should note, Stacy has been generous with linkage to me this week.

Jimmy Bise at The Sundries Shack has the funniest takedown of Charles, so far — here’s a taste, but be sure to read the whole thing:

Anyhow, Johnson’s on Stacy like a chihuahua on a Great Dane and it’s only because Stacy is a good man and not the vicious rage and hate-filled maniac that Johnson wants us to think he is (wait…Stacy McCain filled with rage? Yelling at co-workers? Seriously? Stacy McCain? Has Charles Johnson ever watched Stacy work a room? The man is the exact opposite of rage.) that he hasn’t turned and bitten the yap dog’s head clean off.

But lots of others have torn into Johnson, as they should have. The very notion that my friend Stacy is a racist is laughable. He might as well accuse Stacy of being a liberal.