For reasons I’ve yet to understand, I’ve made a small name for myself as the coiner of the epithet “moonbat,” used to describe certain segments of the left. Glenn Greenwald takes time out from breathing into a paper bag to call attention to it in his spat with Ramesh. It’s a point that comes up on leftwing blogs a lot too, as proof of my ad hominem style. Here’s the funny part. Not only did I not invent the term, but I never said that all Bush critics are moonbats, as Greenwald states. Here’s what I wrote in the LA Times:

Stop me if you’ve heard this already. But there are people out there — honest, decent, sincere people and deranged moonbats, too — who think that George W. Bush lied about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. No, seriously, it’s true. “Bush lied, people died” is one of their catchier slogans.

Elsewhere in the same column I refer to “Bush critics, serious and moonbat alike.” I find it hilarious that so many lefties have decided to assume I was referring to them as “deranged moonbats” rather than “honest, decent, sincere” and “serious”. Now no serious-minded liberal would dispute that there are some crazies out there among Bush critics, though reasonable people can debate who they are. In the case of Greenwald, I suppose this is a rare instance where he felt compelled to speak honestly and declare himself in that category.