Via HotAir, John Avlon of No Labels continues fussing over alleged extremists right and left, this time aiming at Rush Limbaugh and his criticism of the group.

But Avlon's attacks seem off-target.  While I'm not a fan, Rush can hardly be described as "far right" in country where self-described conservatives outnumber self-described liberals 2:1 and his program is so popular he's signing the largest radio contracts in history. Rush is mainstream-right, Hannity is establishment-right, O'Reilly is populist-right, while someone like Savage is more accurately far-right. Meanwhile, the MSM is center-left, liberals like Chris Matthews, E.J. Dionne and Joe Klein are mainstream left, and Olbermann is far left. (Most people at TDB are center-left or left, and so naturally commenters there see Olbermann as fairly reasonable, but in terms of the country as a whole Olbermann is pretty far out of step.) As a libertarian, I don't have a lot of use for the simple left/right dichotomy anyways, but that's the lay of the land within that context.

The problem with the No Labels idea is that it amounts to defining "reasonableness" as something between center-leftism and centrism and then declaring everyone else out of bounds. That's not especially useful. For one thing, fringe ideas don't always stay in the fringe as societies evolve -- 60 years ago, the concept of gay marriage was so radical it was practically inconceivable it could be a political issue. Societal evolution is usually a good thing, and it happens because we have a vigorous debate.

More problematic for the group is that calling for civility while demonizing everyone to your left and right isn't remotely intellectually consistent. You can see that in what a logical trainwreck this column becomes -- Avlon at once denounces demonization and demonizes; his group is called No Labels but he slings around "wingnuts," "hyperpartisan," "poplarizing." The "national conversation" on No Labels mostly consists of eyerolling at the sanctimony, as well it should. Perhaps James Taranto put it best:

"They will establish lines that no one should cross." Rhetorical lines. That is to say, David Frum & Co. are going to decide what you may say and what you may not. Sounds fascist, doesn't it? Oh wait, are we allowed to say "fascist"? Or did we just cross the line that no one should cross?

In other "center-lefties telling everyone else to shut up" news, the inaptly named Politifact, which shares an award with Walter Duranty, has named "government takeover of health care" the Lie of the Year.

Face, meet palm.

Now, whether a 3,000 page bill that, among myriad other commandments, forces individuals to buy insurance and insurers to enter into money-losing contracts amounts to "a government takeover" may be a matter of opinion, but to call that claim a "lie" demeans the whole concept of honesty. Never mind Obama's factually untrue claims he hadn't raised taxes, that if you liked your doctor you could keep your doctor, that the health care bill would not increase the deficit "one dime," that it would be negotiated in the open on C-Span. Even on the right, there were certainly claims to be found that were actually, you know, not true -- and you didn't even need to stoop as far as Michelle Bachmann accurately quoting that Times of India piece on Obama's allegedly $200M/day trip. Accountability is surely desirable, but in the pursuit of that ideal Politifact is more stumbling block than swift and keen-nosed hound.

UPDATE:  Some excellent thoughts from Peter Suderman on the topic:

Meanwhile, our rigorous team of fact-checkers even introduce a misleading statement of their own when they claim that "the law Congress passed...relies largely on the free market."

The only way this is true is if you utterly fail to distinguish between the concepts of "the free market" and "a highly regulated private sector," which is a far more accurate description of what the health care law relies on to accomplish its goals.

Sadly, making important distinctions doesn't seem to be their strong suit. Somehow when picking their lie of the year, Politifact settled on a minority party exaggeration with elements of truth--and managed to ignore the near-continuous stream of full-blooded whoppers coming from the folks actually running things.