Spinsanity’s done with it’s non-partisan breakdown of “The John Walker Attack on Liberalism,” a review of the conservative punditry’s rhetorical strategies in examining the Johnny bin Walker phenomenon. Here’s how they see it:

The case of John Walker, the 20-year-old American recently discovered fighting for the Taliban, has fueled rhetorical excesses by the conservative commentariat. While most debate focuses on how he should be punished, a number of right-leaning pundits have played cultural psychologist, making sweeping and simplistic arguments condemning liberalism based only on Walker’s actions. This is yet another example of how pundits make broad arguments based on scant evidence if it happens to reinforce their biases […]

Following some specific local analyses (of Jeff Jacoby, Andrew Sullivan, Shelby Steele, and Claudia Rosett), the essay concludes:

John Walker proved to be an irresistible subject for some conservative pundits. Using factual dissembling and tricky pseudo-logic, they used his upbringing in Marin County and conversion to Islam as the basis for broad cultural and political indictments of liberalism. Thus did one emotionally charged case become a classic example of the pathology of a punditry that makes sweeping statements based on isolated examples and limited information.

Brian Linse at AintNoBadDude agrees, adding that

Lots of bloggers out there piled on in this particular feeding frenzy. You guys know who you are, but the truth is that we can all learn a lesson from Ben’s analysis.

Well, at the risk of sounding all…y’know, polemical…I think Ben at Spinsanity is correct, in a strictly clinical sense, but I also think that he’s ignoring the larger picture — the implied thesis of virtually every one of these essays. True: the particulars of Walker’s upbringing were used by a whole host of pundits (sometimes unfairly) to take a general swipe at a…well, a peculiarly permissive brand of Marin-ated liberalism. But, as Jay Nordlinger points out in his latest “Impromptus,” we shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss this rhetorical maneuver:

Some people are a little annoyed with those of us -wingers who