I decided to review some of the responses to Markos Moulitsas’s American Taliban this morning. Mother Jones‘s Kevin Drum, who hadn’t read the book, linked to a negative review in the American Prospect and wondered if any conservatives had criticized Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism. Good question.

Then I looked up the Prospect review. It was written by Jamelle Bouie, who criticizes Markos’s combative approach and argues, among other things, that conservatives “haven’t actually gained from their willingness to bend and misrepresent the truth.”

First question: Really? That would come as big news to Lee Atwater, the political operative whose bosses appointed several right-wing justices to the Supreme Court, which then gave the 2000 election to George W. Bush, who then appointed more conservative justices, whose decisions we will probably have to endure for decades. I would say that conservatives gained from Atwater’s dirty tricks.

Second question: Who is Jamelle Bouie? When I checked out his LinkedIn page, I discovered that he received his B.A. last year and started at the American Prospect two months ago. This is the only professional experience he lists. He adds, “I am a professional blogger and writer, more or less.” None of this modesty appears in his article, his second for the Prospect‘s website. To the contrary, he claims the high ground of the fourth estate: “Unlike myself (sic), Moulitsas isn’t a journalist …” Ah, OK.

The gist of the review is that liberals shouldn’t “succumb to temptation and emulate the right’s disregard for truth and context.” I don’t agree that Markos did that at all. But even if I did, I wonder about Mr. Bouie’s (youthful?) idealism here.

His position reminds me of the scene in Recount, the HBO feature film about the 2000 presidential election in Florida. Heading the Democratic push for a recount, Warren Christopher takes the high road with his team: “We want to proceed as if this were a proper legal process, not a political street fight.” Cut to James Baker, head of the Republican effort, who instructs his troops, “Now listen, people, this is a street fight for the presidency of the United States.”