Left to White House: Stop 'Hippie Punching'

The White House hasn't been shy about criticizing the left so maybe top Obama adviser David Axelrod should have expected an earful when he organized a conference call to ask liberal bloggers for help ahead of the midterm elections. "You want us to help you, the first thing I would suggest is enough of the hippie punching," Susan Madrak of Crooks and Liars told him. "We're the girl you'll take under the bleachers but you won't be seen with us in the light of day."

"To the extent that we shouldn't get involved in intramural skirmishing, I couldn't agree more," Axelrod replied. Madrak told him he was missing the point, and that White House criticism of the left would make it a lot harder for liberal bloggers to energize the base, the Washington Post reports. "Don't make our jobs harder," she said. "Right back at'cha. Right back at'cha," Axelrod replied testily.