it looks like ezra was right

this is pretty funny. as part of the push back over the frost howl, a bunch of left wing bloggers noted that slamming the personal choices of the frost family in a difficult situation is not engaging in a good-faith argument over health care policy. in response michelle malkin wrote: "It’s militant leftist bloggers who wouldn’t know a good-faith argument if it bit them in the lip"

so yesterday "militant leftist blogger" ezra klein called her bluff and challenged malkin to a debate over S-CHIP:

Let's have a good faith argument. I will debate Michelle Malkin anytime, anywhere, in any forum (save HotAir TV, which she controls), on the particulars of S-CHIP. We can set the debate at a think tank, on BloggingHeads, over IM. Hell, we can set up the podiums in the shrubbery outside my house, since that seems to be the sort of venue she naturally seeks out. And then if Malkin wants an argument, she can have one. We'll talk S-CHIP and nothing but -- nothing of the Frosts, or Congress, or her blog.

ezra continued:

My sense has been that Malkin doesn't want an argument. Rather, she wants to feed her readers the steady stream of outrage that keeps her traffic numbers up. But I realized tonight that I could be wrong, and I shouldn't assume Malkin doesn't want a real argument unless I actually ask her.

so he asked her. and in response, malkin indicated that she did not, in fact, want to engage in a real argument:

"Debate" Ezra Klein? What a perverse distraction and a laughable waste of time that would be. And that’s what they really want, isn’t it? To distract and waste time so they can foist their agenda on the country unimpeded.¹

yes, talking about the actual S-CHIP law is a "distraction" from the real issue of how much the frosts' home is worth. how silly of ezra to think otherwise.²

UPDATE: Tim F. from balloon juice has actual footage of ezra trying to debate michelle malkin.

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1-actually that's just the most focused paragraph. if you'd like a good laugh, read the entire meandering rant (skip down past all the updates at the top until you see a picture of ezra with his hand on his chin)

2-n.b. SARCASM BRACKETS HERE.