Well Now! Ed Whelan at Bench Memos has outed liberal blogger John F. Blevins of the South Texas College of Law, who runs the rather – nearly always wrong – Obsidian Wings blog.

“One bane of the Internet is the anonymous blogger who abuses his anonymity to engage in irresponsible attacks. One such blogger who has been biting at my ankles in recent months is the fellow who calls himself “publius” at the Obsidian Wings blog.

In the course of a typically confused post yesterday, publius embraces the idiotic charge (made by “Anonymous Liberal”) that I’m “essentially a legal hitman” who “pores over [a nominee’s] record, finds some trivial fact that, when distorted and taken totally out of context, makes that person look like some sort of extremist.” In other of his posts (including two which I discussed here and here), publius demonstrated such a dismal understanding of the legal matters he opined on—including, for example, not understanding what common law is—that it was apparent to me that he had never studied law.

Well, I’m amused to learn that I was wrong about publius’s lack of legal education. I’ve been reliably informed that publius is in fact the pseudonym of law professor John F. Blevins of the South Texas College of Law. I e-mailed Blevins to ask him to confirm or deny that he is publius, and I copied the e-mail to the separate e-mail address, under the pseudonym “Edward Winkleman,” that publius used to respond to my initial private complaints about his reckless blogging. In response, I received from “Edward Winkleman” an e-mail stating that he is “not commenting on [his] identity” and that he writes under a pseudonym “[f]or a variety of private, family, and professional reasons.” I’m guessing that those reasons include that friends, family members, and his professional colleagues would be surprised by the poor quality and substance of his blogging.”

I’ve been blogging since before it was cool. Many bloggers are anonymous and occasionally one or two has been outed. Fact is that I have a “bio” list of just about every mainstream or otherwise liberal bloggers, names, addresses, phone, cell, employment etc, if for no other reason than to know who they are.

Yes, I could out many who I know would be in both legal and employment jeopardy if their information were leaked, but I won’t do that. I’ve been attacked, slandered, lied about, yada, yada. I’m a big boy, I can take it it. It’s part of the game we play. Unless they committed slander against myself, or an illegal act, their secret is safe with me.

But to each his/her own. I’ve have no judgment on the matter. I’ve read the threads between Ed and publius” at the Obsidian Wings, and I can see why Ed thought this important. Mr. Blevins definitely crossed the line and slandered Ed and as such needs to be brought to account.

However, I’ve always felt that I never have to respond to a false accusation, or a lie, I simply let the sleeping dogs sleep and whine.

UPDATE: The Other McCain proves a good defense and I agree with it. You wonder where all the outrage is when liberal gay thugs out gay republicans? Again, the hypocrisy is endless with these people.

UPDATE: No sooner said, then comes an excellent post from William A. Jacobson who notes the hypocrisy of lefty blogger like the vermin that populate Firedog Lake, like TBogg, who made outing bloggers and political players a hobby. Or gay thugs like John Arovosis and Mike Rogers who have outed gay republicans and brought disgrace upon themselves and their cause.

Again, all Whelen did was poke the lion, the nature of the lion was already apparent. If I were the left, I’d shut up while I’m ahead.

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