Interviews with participants indicate the dispute isn't that clear-cut.
Date published: 2/27/2007
BY MICHAEL ZITZ
It was the punch heard 'round the blogosphere.
On Feb. 17, a Fredericksburg man with fervent anti-war feelings sought out, confronted, and is accused of assaulting a "College Republican" at the University of Mary Washington for supporting the war in Iraq.
The tale of pacifist passion boiling over provided juice for political Web sites on both the right and the left. One conservative blogger cited it as an example of how hatred of President Bush is driving liberals to extremes.
Interviews with the participants indicate the dispute isn't that clear-cut.
The man accused in the attack refuses to call himself a Democrat but acknowledges that his actions were "dumb."
The "pro-war Republican" who was attacked says he isn't an active member of the campus political group and no longer strongly supports the war. One of his roommates, whowas the first to be punched, describes himself as a liberal Democrat.
Their stories offer a cautionary tale about the danger of putting too much personal information on the Internet, about the corrosive nature of debate in the blogosphere, and about what can happen when people jump to conclusions as quickly as they click from one Web site to another.
A plan to confront
Andrew Jefferson Stone, a 23-year-old Mary Washington alumnus, didn't know Reed Pannell, a UMW junior from Sterling.
Stone said he found Pannell's name and address by doing a Facebook search for College Republicans in Fredericksburg. Stone made a list, then started going door to door with Army recruiting materials.
His plan was to ask those on the list if they support the war--and if so, why they weren't fighting in it.
Pannell, 20, said he listed "College Republicans" as one of his activities on his Facebook profile, even though he said he doesn't even attend the UMW group's meetings.
He said he wasn't concerned at the time about openly providing his home address on the profile. "All I was worried about was people showing up unannounced to party," he said.
Conservative columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin contended in an interview
that because of President Bush's Electoral College victory in 2000 and the
war in Itaq, "On many college campuses, there's been this [liberal]
spillover and this
frustration" compounded by "inability to articulate arguments against the
war, arguments against conservative principles ... The only ways in which the
left has to fight back are violence and harassment and intimidation.
You see
that with attacks on ROTC offices across the country, attacks on
conservative speakers [on campuses]."
'Flame war'
"I regret using a racial slur in a political bullentin board flame war,"
Andrew Stone said.
"I have serious [political] problems with Israel, and I
feel that even legitimate criticism of that nation is stifled by our media
..."
'Everybody knows the liberal blogosphere is way cooler'
"I don't really care about Michelle Malkin and the conservative
blogosphere," Andrew Stone said. "First of all, everybody knows the liberal
blogosphere is way cooler, and though there are exceptions, they generally
don't spend this much time talking about a 23-year-old college grad with
three misdemeanor assault charges pending."
Stone said he's received a number of emails from readers of Malkin's
conservative blog: "I generally delete them without reading, though the ones
I have read usually read something like, 'Try coming to MY house and doing
this--you'll be sorry,' signed, Anonymous'."
'I'd rather not hurt the label'
Andrew Stone declined to confirm that he's a Democrat. "I'd rather not hurt the
label of any political persuasion that my opinions may relate to by
identifying too closely with it," he said.
'They all laughed'
Patrick Brooks-Kinney, a 24-year-old Iraq War veteran and UMW freshman from
Springfield who served as an Army sergeant and is friend of Andrew Stone's,
said he doesn't believe he went to Reed Pannell's house to pick a fight. "He's
too smart for that," he said.
He said he agreed with Stone's assessment that those who support a war
should be willing to fight in it, but that he advised Stone not to proceed
when told of his plans to "recruit" Republicans.
Stone said that he went to an Army recruiter's office to pick up the
pamphlets and said he was "going to help them out by recruiting college
Republicans. They all laughed."
'An interesting job'
Andrew Stone, who wants to become a filmmaker, works for the Capitol Police in Richmond, getting arrested again and
again in training drills.
"We act out different scenarios," he said. "The last time I went they had
me run at trainees with a rubber knife and they shot me with paintball
ammunition rounds. It's an interesting job."
'That's what happens'
Reed Pannell has maintained a sense of humor about the incident. He said his
parents are politically progressive and that when he told his father what
happened, Rick Pannell teased his son: "See, that's what happens.
That's
what happens [when you're a Republican]."
Andrew Stone said his parents, who live in Vienna, Va., found out about
his arrest from Fox News--at least indirectly. He said his uncle saw it on
the cable news channel and called them.
"Silence on the left"
"I've seen enough of this type of person in far left politics to think that it's the politics that drive the behavior," Michelle Malkin said in an interview. "There are certainly unhinged people everywhere. Pro-life fanatics bomb abortion clinics. [But] Those cases are extremely rare. And pro-life people everywhere loudly condemn those [acts]. What I notice is a lot of silence on the left when these fanatics go wild. They'll make an excuse, or rationalize the behavior."
Zitz's equivocation(posted by
JimC
, Sep. 25, 2007 2:41 pm)
You're right, this is a bit more complicated. Either Stone's a Democrat or he considers the Democratic Party too conservative, and he's too dishonest to admit either. And Mr. Zitz does not put this criminal on the spot and pursue the matter with hard questions but pusillanimously lets it go. Would Mr. Zitz have done so had the political persuasions been reversed? I wouldn't bet one cent on it.
You don't have to volunteer to support the war(posted by
emptyhouses
, Sep. 25, 2007 2:41 pm)
Many of the troops that fought in the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam did not volunteer and were drafted. Stone and other Democrats make an argument that if you support the war but don't volunteer that you are a hypocritical coward. Their argument would then carry that volunteers are the only true patriots which demeans all of our brave men in uniform who did not volunteer. You didn't hear too much about this when we had a draft dodging. dope smoking, serial raping, perjury committing president.
I'm so tired of Hollywood and idiots like this trying to shove their opionions in my face. He's lucky. If he'd knocked on my door he would have been looking down the barrel of my Beretta.
Politics with a punch(posted by
GOUSA
, Sep. 25, 2007 2:41 pm)
Another criminal charge is trespassing, but that does not seem to have been included. By the way, if peace protesters are "terrorists" than what about all of those pro-war people who made threats to those of us who intitially opposed the war? Oh, yeah...they are now against the war.
Interesting response by the student, he didn't sign for the military because daddy is paying for college?? Good that he has his priorities straight.
Protesting for "Peace"(posted by
kinnywayne
, Sep. 25, 2007 2:41 pm)
This just goes to show how mindless people are today. There are ways to go about protesting in a "peaceful" and sane manner. I thought the 500 phone calls you recieved for being registered either way were bad. The "peace" protesters now adays promote violence as a means. Not all...but by protesting at fallen soldiers funerals, and going door to door... Give me a break! They ask for confontation. And they'd get it knocking on my door.
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