Angry in the Great White North

Deb Frisch's post is classic Frisch -- insulting and seemingly self-destructive:

mcveigh's shyster

I just called Jeralyn Merritt to ask her why she thought it was cost-effective to assist Mr. Lewis, Mr. Goldstein and sinner in their attempt to incite verbal and physical violence against me by posting false information about me on her pseudoleftist web site. I hadn't realized the blogger who posted a lie on her website in order to incite physical violence against me was quite an accomplished shyster herself! She defended Timothy McVeigh.

That's right folks - the she-shyster is outraged I made a joke about her friend's kid, but she defended a guy who bombed a day care center!

Anyway, Ms. Merritt didn't want to answer my question about what motivated her to propagate misinformation intended to incite violence against me. Can't blame her, I guess.

P.S. She looks really good for someone who's almost 60..or else the pics are decades old which would mean...she's about as honest in her presentation of visual information as she is in her presentation of verbal information (i.e., not at all).

Of course, none of these comments are fair. Being a defense lawyer means defending the most awful people in society. It's a hard job, and I don't envy them. But we must never start attributing the sins of the defendent to the attorney.

To say that Merritt has no business defending children because she defended Timothy McVeigh is absurd. I'm certain Merritt never defended nor even attempted to minimize the horror of the deaths of the children in the Murrah Building daycare. To imply that in any way because she defended McVeigh is vile.

To call her a shyster is to impugn her reputation, not something to be done lightly.

The incitement to violence? I don't see it in the post on Merritt's blog linked by Frisch.

And to say Jeralyn Merritt looks over 60 suggests Deb Frisch needs to have her eyes checked and her glasses updated. Not to mention the strained effort to call Merritt a liar based on the picture -- that's just pathetic. As are comments on a person's appearance in general.

Merritt has taken a first step in response, leaving this comment on Frisch's blog:

I hereby order you to cease and desist from posting libelous, slanderous comments that defamate my character immediately.

I guess we'll see where this goes.

For what it's worth, I spoken quite highly of Jeralyn Merritt, in relation to her comments about Deb Frisch's attack on Jeff Goldstein's children:

But to disagree with criminal defense attorney Jeralyn Merritt is not to invite death threats against your family. Even though she's a lawyer with strong views on freedom of speech (he supports the decision of the New York Times to reveal details of the Operation Swift anti-terrorist program, for example), she has no problem characterizing Deb Frisch as "unhinged" and her comments "inexcusable".

Got that? No excuses. No mealy mouthed references to what someone else might have said to justify Frisch's comments, or at least to distract criticism. No flaccid attempts to minimize the gravity of what she had done by measuring it against the perceived short attention span of her critics.

And she points out that Frisch's behaviour is wrong for both liberals and conservatives. Merritt believes, quite rightly, that there are things that are universally wrong. Frisch should not get a free pass because she took aim at a "paste eating" right winger.

Merritt has her head screwed on right. It might be filled with some silly ideas, but at least I know that in her world, the sky is blue, children are precious, and people who are wrong need to be confronted.

Jeralyn posted a comment to my blog in response:

Steve, thank you for your kind words. I agree with what you wrote about Frisch and it makes me angry that people will tar other liberals with the same brush. Criticism about another's politics can be accomplished far more by reasoned disagreement with the position taken than by a personal attack on the writer or his family.

Jeralyn

The left would benefit from more Jeralyn Merritts and fewer Deb Frischs.

No, scratch that.

All of us, left or right, would benefit.