Oh puh-lease. Try to understand the point: it's just as unfair to lump Newman, Pug, etc. as embarassing leftists as it is to lump you in that category.
If you prefer to think it was some sort of rhetorical maneuver designed to attack you, that's your problem. Here's a clue: some would say _I'm_ an embarassing leftists. Go read some Dean supporting blogs for a taste of what think about analyses the likes of what passes for ordinary, uncontroversial argument on this list. Almost everyone here is an embarassing leftist on their view.
Meanwhile, you might consider Carrol's very compelling reasons why we should avoid the kind of claims he made in that post. He's written about it before, and I've called it out as an important principle we should try to uphold. I'm sure he was just having a bad evening. :)
kelley
"We live under the Confederacy. We're a podunk bunch of swaggering pious hicks."
--Bruce Sterling