It's no secret that the liberal left is bit obsessively fascinated by The New Republic. That interest used to be motivated by a sort of envy -- they were the "in-flight reading on Air Force One," the go-to journal for liberal thought and analysis. In recent years, the focus has been a product of a deep animus. Attitudinally anti-liberal and, when it counted, ideologically neoconservative, it would be all too easy to imagine The New Republic remained the in-flight reading of Air Force One, were it not so hard to imagine that Air Force One still contained any reading material at all.
But while various blogs have taken isolated shots pot shots at the magazine, there's not been much of an attempt to coherently think through and understand the magazine's slow decline, remaining virtues, and current character. Writing in TAP, Eric Alterman has offered just such an examination. And not to spoil anything, but it finishes with a kicker from our very own Petey, which appeared in the comments here. See? Commenting can make you famous.
