WHAT GOLDBERG MEANS

Aaron Brown: “Some conservatives jumped on [Taliban fighter John] Walker, saying he is a product of cultural liberalism – the California kind – helping to turn an impressionable kid against his own country. Joining us from Salinas, California, one of those conservatives, Shelby Steele of the Hoover Institution. Mr. Steele wrote a provocative article the other day in The Wall Street Journal – a column in the Journal. And here in New York, a columnist who thinks Mr. Steele is making an awfully broad generalization: Richard Cohen of the Washington Post. It’s nice to have both of you here.
Mr. Steele.”
Shelby Steele: “First of all, let me interrupt you just a minute. Is Richard Cohen a liberal?”
Brown: “Yeah, Richard Cohen’s a liberal. I think he would say that, wouldn’t he?”
Richard Cohen: “On this issue.”
Brown: “Okay. Everyone is now branded, I guess.”
Steele: “Great. If I’m going to be, everybody’s going to be.”

– Exchange on CNN’s NewsNight, December 18.