Cross-posted at my blog Getting Critical
Most of the time when someone claims the usage of "revisionist history" it has a negative connotation. It is as if to claim that the opposing point of view is the product of historical hackery. Howard Zinn has done much to try to counteract this notion and as someone who views A People’s History of the United States as one of the most important books ever written in the English language I recognize the importance of revisionist history. Dana Milbank in his Washinton Post column today once again affirms his reputation as a Washington insider charlatan. In his column he applauds the President for his tough stand against liberals and in particular Pete DeFazio, a liberal congressman from Oregon. Using its more colloquial usage, Milbank is guilty of "revisionist history" in the first degree. For those of us who are baseball stat nerds we owe much debt to Fire Joe Morgan, a blog that went far to point out the dumb things that people in the mainstream media would say about baseball. It is in that spirit that I shine a critical light on Milbank’s most recent column.