The folks at Crooked Timber are having themselves a giggle fest over my alleged hypocrisy at criticizing Matt Yglesias for asserting bad motives on those he disagress with. I’m a hypocrite, they allege, because in my current London Times column I criticize those who are currently blaming “the Jews” for the problems in Iraq. It’s behind a registration wall, but it borrows much from the syndicated column I wrote on Hollings and includes Gen. Zinni’s new comments about pro-Israel neocons. Cited as proof of my hypocrisy is my lead:

“HERE we go again. It is time to blame the Jews. That seems to be this month’s explanation for the Iraq war. Obviously, this is hardly a new idea on either side of the Atlantic, particularly for readers of, say, The Guardian or Le Monde. But in America, the emphasis on the theory has reached almost French proportions.”

Now it’s probably unfortunate that the editors at the Times cut the sentence where I explictly said I don’t think Zinni is anti-Semitic, but even so I don’t say that Zinni is anti-Semitic and, as in my syndicated column, I say that Hollings is a buffoon, not a bigot. As for Matt Yglesias, I really do respect the guy but he is increasingly asserting bad motives without evidence these days, a point I made last week when he suggested my lack of an opinion on Achmed Chalabi was attributable to my desire to “come out on top in the end” and not to, say, my intellectual honesty or even my ignorance.

Even so, Crooked Timber’s point is still just a hypocrisy charge and not a defense of Yglesias. Saying I’m a hypocrite for attacking motives while criticizing others who do the same doesn’t excuse Yglesias for doing it and it doesn’t rebut my charge either. It’s a non-defense defense.