LIE DOWN WITH DOGS, GET UP WITH FLEAS: David Corn reports on the banning of Rabbi Michael Lerner from an antiwar protest at A.N.S.W.E.R.’s behest. Now, I think that Lerner is a deeply silly man, but that’s not the point here. What’s most troubling is that he was banned on “anti-zionist” grounds, and that two of the “alternative” antiwar groups, supposedly cleaner than A.N.S.W.E.R., went along.

As best I can tell, this means either that (1) the “alternative” groups don’t have enough oomph to put together a rally without A.N.S.W.E.R., meaning that the Stalinists of A.N.S.W.E.R. really are the core of what passes for an antiwar movement in this country; or (2) they just don’t give a damn. Corn concludes:

Lerner was not the source of the problem; ANSWER was. This distracting episode shows what can happen when sincere do-gooders enter into deals with the ANSWER gang. If the reasonable and responsible foes of war are fortunate enough to have further opportunity to rally opposition to the conflict before it occurs, they ought to reconsider their alliance with the censors of ANSWER.

I’d call this episode more “revealing” than “distracting.”