Jonathan Collegio, one of Karl Rove’s minions at his new Conservative Victory Project, raised some eyebrows yesterday when he called Brent Bozell, founder of the conservative Media Research Center, a “hater.” Unsurprisingly, this touched off a round of vitriol on the right, which I’m going to ignore. Instead, let’s focus on the real question: Was Collegio right? Is Bozell a hater? Paul Waldman fills us in:
So, is Brent Bozell a “hater”? Oh heavens, yes. In case you aren’t familiar with him, Bozell may well be Washington’s angriest man, and one of the least effective spokespeople Republicans could find for their cause….With one or two exceptions (Bill Donohue of the Catholic League comes to mind), there’s almost no one in public life more consumed by hate than Bozell. He positively vibrates with hate. I had my own encounter with him in 2004, when we appeared on “The O’Reilly Factor” and had what I thought was a perfectly run-of-the-mill disagreement about the presidential race; afterward he stormed into the greenroom, shouted that John Kerry and I were both liars, and when I asked him (politely and calmly, I assure you) what specifically he was referring to, he sputtered, “Uh…fuck you!” and stormed out.
So there you have it. Obligatory apologies aside, it sounds like Collegio picked his target pretty carefully.
