"Am I Uncivil?"

This is a blog post by Froma Harrop, "...syndicated columnist and head of the National Conference of Editorial Writers, a group that has a project called Restoring Civility as a featured part of its website. Her twice-weekly column appears in more than 200 newspapers, and she also blogs at RealClearPolitics. According to Media Matters for America, Harrop had the 14th largest circulation and ranked 20th in total reach in 2008."

I found through Hot Air, a conservative news blog, in a post by Ed Morrissey. He does an excellent job of discussing the linked post, but the key point is this:

Froma Harrop was skewered by James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal after she was decidedly uncivil in an article about the TEA Party efforts towards the recent deficit vote.

(So much for "Restoring Civility", huh?)

She responded with a post on her web site that said, in part:

"I see incivility as not letting other people speak their piece. It’s not about offering strong opinions. If someone’s opinion is fact-based, then it is permissible in civil discourse. Of course, there are matters of delicacy, and I dispensed with all sweet talk in this particular column. And I did stoop to some ad hominem remarks, I’ll admit."

Her post garnered 39 comments, every one of them "...castigating her hypocrisy and self-serving shifting definitions of civility." At which point, Harrop closed the post for comments, and deleted all of the comments. When you click the above link, you won't see any of them.

Happily, Ed Morrissey was able to save the original post and comments to his web site here.

I've read those comments, and they sound civil to me. Aside from embarrassing Froma Harrop, there was no reason for her delete the comments. Read them for yourself, and see if you agree.

Me, I say, there's no such thing as "civility" from the left.