* Alterman’s work is often characterized by a general contempt for his ideological adversaries. For example:

• In a scathing review of conservative author David Horowitz’s 2000 book The Politics of Bad Faith, Alterman: (a) cited the political writer Paul Berman’s characterization of Horowitz as a “demented lunatic,” and (b) sarcastically wrote that “when Horowitz finally dies, I suspect we will be confronted with a posthumous volume of memoirs titled ‘The End of History.’”
• In a 2003 interview with Esquire, Alterman said that America “would be better without [conservative broadcaster] Rush Limbaugh and his 20 million listeners.” Further, Alterman expressed his “wish” that Limbaugh, whose near-total hearing loss had been reversed by a cochlear implant in 2001, “would have gone deaf.” Alterman also told Esquire that “I debase myself every time I say [Ann Coulter’s] name.”
• Around that same time, Alterman told the Los Angeles Times: “I don’t have to my house for dinner anyone who’s not pro-choice, pro-gun control … pro-campaign finance reform.”

* In December 2001, Alterman wrote that “as evidence now demonstrates, [Al] Gore won not only the national vote [in the disputed 2000 presidential election] … but also a clear majority of all the legal votes cast in Florida.” Comprehensive studies of the issue do not concur with Alterman’s conclusion, however.