First — a disclosure: I know Dr. Mike Lovell. I know him pretty well, in fact. I will not describe the way in which we have become known to one another — but we are now quite friendly. And while I no longer feel bound by the Roman Catholic covenants that he and his family devoutly still follow, I will say without equivocation that he is a very fine, moral, brilliant and honorable man. He would not pick a fight with anyone unless the circumstances absolutely required it1. [But he will not back away from name-callers, either. And that is where Hinderaker enters this absurdist bit of theater. As a name calling buffoon.]
My secondary disclosure (made here a few times before, over the years, but lost to the sands of antiquity now) is that I do also know Hinderaker, personally as well… from nearly a decade ago, now [though not nearly as well as I know Mike]. Hinderaker and I were both law partners, at a very large law firm for a time. We interacted mostly socially, at firm functions and retreats. I found him to be universally and endlessly boring, bellicose and given to various petty vanities and insecurities. It is thus not surprising that he behaves so like (and so admires) the current occupant of 1600 Penn, then. But to be fair, John is at least marginally brighter than Trump [then again, who really… isn’t?]
If asked, then — in any contest of who is the better human being… I would doubtless choose Dr. Lovell.
With all that background — and without spending any time (related to the underlying admission decision dispute, involving an attention seeking, reactionary right-wing young woman, and would-be social media “influencer” who still now wants to be admitted to Marquette), or explaining to John that a faith-based university is just that (something John and the boys often tout — as to Liberty University, when the applicable shoe… is on the other foot)… I can say unequivocally “one cannot defame… garbage by saying… it stinks.” Said another way, the truth of that statement is an absolute defense.
Hinderaker — in an updated version, claims he and Scott J. are investigating a suit for defamation(!), related to a letter authored by Dr. Lovell — the bolded bit of which Hinderaker this afternoon reprinted on his blog — and I quote, below:
“…[Certain] blogs have been making the rounds for about a week, and one such link from powerlineblog.com has been more widely shared today. It is not a reputable news source and its main intention seems to be clickbait and advertising, but nonetheless this gained more widespread attention after Megyn Kelly tweeted it. This afternoon Donald Trump, Jr. retweeted an article from College Fix….”
It is absolutely true — that powelineblog.com is NOT a reputable news source. [It is likewise true that it has previously been labeled a racial-hate site, by the SPLC.] It is also true that it regularly traffics in feverish hard-right conspiracies… and it is true that much of its ad content is pure clickbait — to women in bikinis, and the like. This little blog I run, and its three prior iterations (I also ran) have documented a fifteen to twenty year pattern of near daily misstatements of matters of public import. And matters of no import, at all.
Like the threat to sue Marquette, and/or Dr. Lovell.
Preposterous.
I’d offer to represent Mike and Marquette pro bono, here — but they won’t need it, as they have the best Milwaukee lawfirms on retainer.
Hinderaker is an increasingly doddering bitter old man. It is best to just ignore him, Mike.
He’s decidedly not worth it.
Onward — grinning.
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1. I should make clear that Dr. Lovell didn’t know I wrote this, above — and did not know I knew John Hinderaker. He is entirely unaware that I author this blog. This is thus… as pure a small world story, as you’ll ever encounter. I was surprised when the Universe called both of these names into my inboxes, at nearly the same moment. Amazing.
Powerline Lies... 