Reliable Kurtz on the Miller blogo-blowback

One thing is clear, the blogosphere does not like Judy Miller nor does that collective weirdness that we writers conjure forgive the New York Times -- at least at this point.

No better recap than Howard Kurtz' today in his Media Notes:

The reaction is, well, overwhelmingly negative. I would at least give the NYT credit for publishing a probing piece that raises difficult questions not just about Miller but about the paper's management--more so, in a way, than the famous takeout on Jayson Blair two years ago.

The fact that the Miller blowback feeds into the Bush administration's difficult week(s) ahead only seems to add fuel to the fire. Look no further than Armando on Kos and David Frum. Kurtz on Frum:

Some of the biggest names in conservative punditry have been eviscerating President Bush over the Harriet Miers nomination. But no one has attracted quite as much attention as David Frum.

It's not just that the National Review contributor and American Enterprise Institute fellow was online with stinging criticism of Bush two hours after the president announced Miers as his Supreme Court nominee. It's not just that Frum has been blogging up a storm and hitting the television and radio circuit. It's that the Canadian-born journalist is a former Bush speechwriter.

Then Kurtz grows the matter masterfully:

The spectacle of Frum, George Will, Charles Krauthammer, Rush Limbaugh, John Podhoretz, Kristol and other conservative commentators breaking with their president over Miers has the feel of a messy family feud. These, after all, are the political pugilists who are usually slapping around liberals and Democrats. But there is something about Bush picking his White House counsel and longtime personal lawyer -- and passing over a batch of conservative judges with sterling credentials -- that has inflamed his normally loyal media supporters.

Former Republican Party chairman Ed Gillespie says he's detected a whiff of sexism in the opposition to Miers. Fox News anchor Brit Hume has noted that many critics of the Southern Methodist University graduate went to elite Eastern schools.

This prompted Frum -- a proud graduate of Yale and Harvard Law -- to fire back at "Brit Hume's and Fred Barnes' embarrassing repetition of Ed Gillespie's talking points: 'Brawwwwwk-sexism; brawwwwwwk-elitism; brawwwwwwwwk-Harvard; brawwwwwwwwwk; brawwwwwkk; brawwwwwk.'"