Glenn Greenwald has the right wing internet all atwitter today. And the only thing that has been running through my mind as I’ve perused the gleeful “gotchyas!” and astounded “ah has!” from my fellow righty bloggers has been a sadness born of the realization that it matters not about Greenwald’s sock puppetry or resume padding. The left will still adore him. He will still have standing with the fawning, drooling mass of brainless twits who think his nonsensical screeds against conservatives has any merit whatsoever. And the gaggle of lefty bloggers who think he’s the second coming of William O. Douglas will continue to nod with vigorous approval at his vapid, empty absolutist denunciations of anything and everything the government does in its efforts to protect us.

In short, when all is said and done, tomorrow morning the sun will still come up in the east, set in the west, and Greenwald will yet be prattling on with pious protestations regarding his monk-like objectivity and political centrism while proving to all but the most willfully self deluded that he is a hypocritical weasel whose baseless, scurrilous screeds against all things conservative are the most rank fabrications of his hysterical, hateful mind.

But a record must be made nonetheless. And Dan Riehl, a true citizen-journalist, has taken the time and trouble to research Mr. Greenwald and what he reveals in this excellent post is enough to give any decent liberal pause to reflect on their cannonization of him as some kind of civic saint and ask some questions of their own about who he is and what manner of man they are in bed with.

Dan’s article deserves to be read in its entirety. But this brief excerpt gets to the nub of Greenwald’s problems with the truth as well as the curious group of far left liberals who seem to be behind his rise to stardom:

New York Times best selling author Glenn Greenwald appears to have written a book in an attempt to lecture American patriots on how to act politically when his primary and preferred residence isn’t even within the United States – it’s actually in Brazil. Perhaps How Would An Expatriate Act would have been a more fitting title.

Several statements said book’s publisher, Working Assets, currently uses to promote the book and author appear to be false. And while Greenwald’s Liberal blogging buddies recently lambasted conservative author Ann Coulter for alleged ethical transgressions – lifting copy from her columns for inclusion in her latest book, Godless, it seems as much as ten-percent or more of How Would A Patriot Act was actually “culled” from previously published material on the author’s popular blog, Unclaimed Territory, available free to all on the Internet.

He must be a liberal given his apparent fondness for re-cycling.

New York Times best selling author, Glenn Greenwald may also have allowed readers to assume something of an exaggerated perception of his professional credential with a prestigious New York City law firm. That’s less clear, but certainly Greenwald can clear it up. Still, once you get beyond Matthew Hale, the high profile case experience associated with Greenwald’s public image isn’t exactly obvious to even a somewhat more than casual observer. Perhaps that’s another item Greenwald will eventually get around to fleshing out.

There is evidence below of a larger effort to prop up both the book and his image as part of an orchestrated campaign to elevate his visibility and status and ensure that his anti-Bush punditry was picked up on by the MSM at a critical time.

Greenwald’s completely inadequate and typically disingenuous response is here. Not only is it inadequate, it’s confusing and doesn’t directly address many of Mr. Riehl’s points about his law practice that Greenwald, in fact, now claims is dormant.

And Greenwald glosses over the most serious ethical matter associated with the oppo research that has come to light recently thanks to some excellent research by Ace, Patterico, and Goldstein regarding the curious coincidence of 5 different commenters with 5 different names all having the same Internet Provider (IP) address – an address that Patterico has confirmed belongs to one Glenn Greenwald. In addition, the comments all contain basically the same “defense” of Mr. Greenwald – bragging of his accomplishments and belittling his opponents in exactly the same language.

Greenwald dismisses the charge:

Those in the same household have the same IP address. In response to the personal attacks that have been oozing forth these last couple of weeks, others have left comments responding to them and correcting the factual inaccuracies, as have I. In each case when I did, I have used my own name.

Is it possible that Mr. Greenwald’s partner left those comments under 5 different names? While that is certainly something to consider, it begs the question as to why his companion would use so many pseudonyms when his own name was suitably anonymous. And if Greenwald did in fact leave all of those comments, it would reveal a sickness of thought and reason not to mention a towering intellectual hubris that should worry anyone who takes the man with a modicum of seriousness.

In the end, however, he’s not worth the trouble. For all the work done by the bloggers I linked above, the fact of the matter is that Greenwald’s kind is a dime a dozen on the left. He and others of his ilk will continue to use drugstore psychology, over the top invective, hysterical fear mongering, and outright lies to smear their way to stardom. And unless there are those on the right ready to refute their lies, exaggerations, and laughable attempts at armchair psychoanalysis, they will continue to have the mouth breathing masses on the left groveling at their feet in worshipful and slavish devotion.

I pointed out when I first fisked one of Mr. Greenwald’s posts the monumental task it was to attempt and refute so many strawman arguments, obfuscations, exaggerations, and dissociative explanations for conservative ideology that spewed forth from Greenwald’s pen. It reminds me of why most reputable scientists won’t spend much time debunking their pseudoscience nemeses. It simply takes too long and really isn’t very interesting work.

In essence, Greenwald isn’t worth it.

UPDATE

This is the first line from Greenwald’s defense:

“As I’ve noted several times in the last couple of weeks, my focus on the lawlessness, extremist rhetoric and violence-inciting tactics of the Bush movement and its followers in the blogosphere…”

“Lawlessness?” Who? Where? What statute? Unless Mr. Greenwald now considers it criminal behavior to criticize the press or Bush haters like him (or perhaps make tasteless but perfectly legal jokes about stringing up reporters or Greenwald himself), I fail to see any lawbreaking in writing one’s thoughts down on a blog.

Civil liberties attorney? Maybe for Kim Jong Il.