British blogger Richard Bartholomew weighs in on Andrew Breitbart’s attempt to spread blatantly dishonest smears about your humble narrator:

Andrew Breitbart Targets Charles Johnson in Turner Diaries Smear.

Coming in for special mention: the Duo of Dimmitude, Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer.

This is an insult to the intelligence: Johnson’s Amazon store brings up any book which is available through Amazon – including Breitbart’s own literary endeavours. Also, Johnson has made it very clear that  he despises The Turner Diaries, so the implied suggestion that the book’s availability somehow reveals some sort of dark truth about him makes no sense.

Of course, this is just a minor incident in Breitbart’s stellar career as a smear-monger, although it’s worth noting as further evidence of why Breitbart is a ludicrous figure who ought to shunned by anyone who cares about honesty and decency in public life. Johnson seems to be a lightning rod for this kind of thing: I recently noted Robert Spencer’s claim that Johnson seeks to justify honour killings.

As is widely known, Breibart, Spencer, and Geller have a particular hatred for Johnson because he used to be a political ally. A few years ago, Little Green Footballs took the same sort of approach as can be found on Jihad Watch: the logo, I recall, was a terrified hippy jumping into the arms of a burka-clad woman at the sight of a green football, and the site hosted a good deal of crude anti-Muslim sentiment among the commentators. Johnson’s targets included the stupidity of Trutherism and elements on the anti-war left that were either pro-Islamist or complacent about the problem, but there was also much that I considered objectionable or unfair.

By his own account, Johnson “left … no, ran away from the right”, and he cites reasons such as the rise of the Christian right in the Republican Party and the willingness of elements of the “counter-jihad” crowd to work with unsavoury groups in Europe. While he sees “the right” as having become more excessive, it’s also apparent that he now has a greater respect for progressive discussion and activism.

Pamela Geller recently wrote to him on Twitter:

On your belly, rotten traitor. Everybody despises you – left and right

This is an irrelevant jibe – Johnson is running a blog on his own terms, not seeking a position in a political movement. From what I’ve seen of his site over the past couple of years, he writes in good faith, linking to interesting stories and calling things as he sees them. I don’t always agree with his analyses, but he doesn’t pander and he doesn’t seek to distort or manipulate. Whether he ought to be more self-critical about what his blog used to be like is a matter for him (although some former targets may want to press the point), but the blog is today a useful resource. That’s really all that matters.

Note that one of the obsessed stalkers showed up in Richard’s comments almost immediately after he tweeted the link, wanting to make sure they got credit for launching the smear; and don’t miss his lovely user icon.