Wizbang

"Digital Brownshirts?"

I've just heard from friend-of-the-Hall Jarhead Dad, who is back from a long run. He put me on to this story from Al Gore's recent speech, which I'm citing from Wizbang:

The Administration works closely with a network of "rapid response" digital Brown Shirts...

Now of course when you hear "Brown Shirts" you think at once of Hitler's loyal followers from the early days of Nazism, the ones he had killed at the Night of the Long Knives. Gore would, on first face, appear to be comparing pro-administration bloggers and followers-of-blogs with this bunch of fascists.

But then, after a moment, I remembered the story about Naomi Wolfe...

By contrast, Gore's way is not to be chummy but not to be petty either. He has never held it against Time magazine for breaking a story about his hiring of author Naomi Wolfe as a secret adviser... Air Gore was a grumpy place, and the alpha male in earth tones with his earnest town-hall meetings couldn't catch a break for much of the campaign.

So you see, Gore isn't being petty. He's just trying to offer you a compliment, in his awkward sort of way. Brown shirts are, of course, earth tones: exactly the sort of clothes he's heard that "alpha men" wear.