Coddling the Deniers?

I've said in the past that we'll take it when Democrat politicos and famed liberals slough off the 9-11 Deniers with promises of "Send me some information and I'll look into it," which has more or less been the line that Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama, John Kerry, John Edwards and Cindy Sheehan have used. Our battle here is not with Democrats, but with 9-11 fruitcakes.

But liberals should not assume that their conservative opponents will be so generous. Mark Steyn lays into John Edwards:

Since Senator Edwards is happy to look into whether WTC7 was an inside job, I wonder if he could also investigate whether Bush-Cheney-Rove-Rumsfeld also pulled off Bali, Beslan, Istanbul, Madrid and the London Tube bombings. And where are they hiding the cost of this planet-wide "war on terror" fakery? In the Katrina appropriations?

And AllahPundit:

Here you go — the pride of the nutroots, politely declining to tell a 9/11 conspiracy theorist to go to hell. How can he? His base is filthy with them.

That's a little unfair, but politics ain't beanbag. Allah is of course referring to the recent Rasmussen poll which indicated that 35% of those calling themselves Democrats believe Bush knew in advance of 9-11. Now I have some problems with the poll; the responses may simply indicate over-acceptance of the media-spread meme about the 8/6/01 PDB. Note in particular that one in eight Republicans answered the question in the affirmative as well, which is hard to understand otherwise.

But when you hand your opponents a club, don't be surprised if they start hitting you over the head with it. Democrats need to be more forceful about denouncing this craziness, because 9-11 Denial seems to be growing and they are not doing themselves any favors by trying to sweep it under the rug.

Liberal bloggers need to get involved as well. We've applauded blogs like the Daily Kos for its policy of banning 9-11 Truth diaries, but that's no longer adequate. Kos needs to encourage his front page bloggers to tackle the matter head on, and demand that liberal politicians begin responding more forcefully to debunk the kooks.

There are some encouraging signs. Alan Colmes, who previously had pronounced himself agnostic on the subject of 9-11 Denial, introduced a recent Hannity and Colmes segment with Webster Tarpley as follows: "The 9-11 conspiracy wingnuts are at it again! This time they're spinning the words of John Kerry to suggest that the former presidential nominee in some way endorses those conspiracy theories." It doesn't sound like he's on the fence any longer.