Totally War.

When Andrew Breitbart offers $100,000 for a private email list-serv archive, essentially all bets are off. Every blogger or writer who has ever offered an opinion is now on warning: your opponents will not just argue against you, they will do all they can to ransack your private life, cull your email in-tray, and use whatever material they have to unleash the moronic hounds of today's right-wing base.

sez Andrew Sullivan.

Ok, first of all, getting the Journolist database is not some coordinated right wing conspiracy to ferret through the trash of mainstream journalists to uncover whether they drink wholesome American Coke or pinko Pepsi. It's the Journolist.

Second, both the left and the right argue that the biases of the media affect public perception. On the left, it's all about corporate ownership. On the right, it's liberal journalists. It's a question on everybody's mind.

Third, this is just a case of bloggers getting hoist on their own petard. Prominent bloggers were on the Journolist. The fact that there was some level of chumminess among them is relevant - it's how consensus is formed. I frequently see lefties complain about the chumminess of the Washington press corps - if you were a Gore fan in 2000 or a Hillary fan in 2008, you couldn't escape this critique. It's only fair to turn that lens to new media, as well.

I like blogs precisely because they broaden the scope of conversation about subjects of national importance. Reading TPM during the recount was liberating. When I first heard about the Journolist, I felt very disappointed. I thought the point was to challenge conventional wisdom, not to form a new consensus.

And finally, "they will do all they can to ransack your private life"? Really, like making regular and incessant demands that a prominent woman politcian's gynecologist release their patient's medical records?

How is that on the classy side of the sleaze line?