Charles Johnson 'making even Andrew Sullivan and Markos Moulitsas look sane'

Ouch. That comes from William Teach at Pirate's Cove, the man whose Sorta Blogless Pinup Sunday series originally inspired Rule 5. (Don't touch my Hannah Giles bikini Google-bomb. It might explode at any minute.)

I was on the phone Monday night with Stogie at Saberpoint, who is even more angry at this LGF mess than I am. Stogie's doubled his traffic in recent months, and his blog-fu gets better all the time. It's ridiculous that good conservative bloggers should be forced to concern themselves with the Madness of King Charles, but the relentlessness of his insane attacks -- against Pamela Geller, against Robert Spencer, against Gates of Vienna, etc., etc. -- seems to demand it.

Given the self-evident megalomania of Mad King Charles, no defense should be necessary. His one-man campaign to banish the entire blogosphere will soon end in a bunker beneath the bombed-out rubble of his Reich Chancellery. Nevertheless, I am grateful to so many good bloggers who've rallied unbidden to my defense, and those who've objected to his other recent jihads:

• Da Tech Guy gives a round-by-round account of the fight. Someone once said of Muhammed Ali that the secret of his greatness was his amazing ability to take a punch. I remember watching Ali go the distance against Ken Norton after Norton broke Ali's jaw. Johnson hasn't laid a glove on me.
• Yid With Lid shakes his head sadly, more in regret than in anger.
• Snapped Shot notices that LGF has succumbed to BDS (Beck Derangment Syndrome) and anoints Mad King Charles "the Internet's Commissar of Affiliation-Investigation."
• Scott Johnson of PowerLine purges LGF from the blogroll and mildly remarks: "We long ago stopped reading LGF. Suffice it to say . . . that Charles's political inclinations and interests now diverge widely from our own."
• One Cosmos lists some of the"fascist sympathizers" purged by LGF: Ace of Spades, Iowahawk, Gateway Pundit, Jammie Wearing Fool and American Thinker. Mad King Charles may soon set a record for having the World's Shortest Blogroll, linking only himself.
• Gates of Vienna, first targeted by Mad King Charles in 2007, says, "It’s gratifying to see at last -- almost two years after the fact -- an acknowledgement by a major blog like Power Line that Charles Johnson's take on Vlaams Belang and European 'neo-Nazis' was wrong, and that Fjordman, Pamela Geller, Paul Belien, and Gates of Vienna were right." Exactly. If Vlaams Belang ever flies a hijacked jet into a skyscraper, I'll worry about Vlaams Belang.
• James Fulford, who had previously defended Gates of Vienna, accuses Mad King Charles of bias against Appalachian-Americans (the term now preferred by the National Association for the Advancement of Hillbillies).
• Professor William Jacobson: "As I have said before, 'suppression of legitimate political expression through false accusations of racism' is the defining theme to emerge from the 2008 political campaign. We see it every day, even when we debate health care." Exactly. I have never been a great admirer of Trent Lott, but when Senate Republicans dumped him for having dared to say nice things about Strom Thurmond -- on the occasion of Thurmond's 100th birthday -- that was like ceding the Sudetenland to Hitler. Weakness invites aggression, and the Republican Cowardice Caucus is now facing a sacrificial lamb shortage.
• Dan Riehl goes New Jersey on Charles: "At this rate they’re going to find him behind a pile of old newspapers lying dead in a pile of cat feces one day. Freaking lunatic."
• Donald Douglas at American Power earns a few minutes out on the ice, after having been sent to the penalty box. Professor Douglas called me Monday night to sympathize over the recent uproar, and I took the occasion to urge him again to make amends with the ladies, as does my faithful blog companion Smitty.

And now, having once more done my part to promote respect and amity in the blogosphere (stop laughing), I must conclude with a Moral To The Story.

The secret to fighting a smear? Simple: Get right with God. All your sins are known by the ultimate investigative Journalist.

If you are unfairly accused, you are certainly not the first such case, nor the most important Victim in history. You have no right to complain, because even if you are innocent of the specific charge against you, you are not sinless and righteous.

We are, as Jonathan Edwards declared, sinners in the hands of an angry God, deserving nothing but destruction, and by our own merit cannot deserve any small blessing we receive. Should we therefore be ungrateful for grace?

Hate is against my religion, and I am commanded to pray for my enemies. This is arguably the most difficult commandment, you see. "Thou shalt not" this, that and the other -- relatively easy, compared to praying for Charles Johnson.

Remember: There are five A's in raaaaacism.