National Review columnist John J. Miller smacks a blogger known as “Half Sigma” for “dis”ing special education vouchers. Half Sigma wrote: “Republicans applaud themselves for doing stuff that the left has been pushing for. We nominated a woman for Vice President. How wonderful of us. The female candidate talks about how she’s going to help “special needs” children, and the so-called conservatives applaud the conservatism of it. How wonderful of us. We are going to fight global warming. How wonderful of us.”
Miller then responds on The Corner: “I love those sneer quotes around “special needs.” Would it be better if we called them “retards”?
But that’s just a style point. The substance itself is vaporous. Sarah Palin — oops! “the female candidate” — is calling for the voucherization of special-education spending. This is a very good idea. It’s modeled on one of Jeb Bush’s best market-oriented reforms in Florida, where McKay Scholarships have gotten kids out of lousy public schools and into good private ones, saving taxpayer dollars in the process. School choice has been an elusive public-policy goal of conservatives for a long time; this is a promising path to securing more of it. I urge you to read NRO’s editorial; also this NRO article by Jay Greeneand my article in the Oct. 20 NRODT.”
Besides, The Notorious JPG and DJ Super-Awesome may give Half Sigma a whooping for not having read the post about how bloggers shouldn’t have rapper names
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
I think those sneer quotes are more than a style point. There seems to be a theme this year: lefties throw traditional leftie constituents under the bus in order to win the election. Did you see the recent story about how a former Obama speechwriter is voting McCain because Obama has done too much wrong to too many of the people he claims to speak for?
This morning Miller adds a further comment. As a general rule I think it’s always a mistake to even read John Derbyshire, let alone respond to him (which only encourages the disgorgement of more bile), but in this case I’ll make an exception:
“Derb: Guess what? The federal spigot is already open for special-needs kids. Good luck trying to shut it off! Meantime, Palin has proposed a really good idea for how the money we’re already spending ought to be spent—one that’s market-oriented, parent-friendly, and possibly a political inroad for the expansion of school choice.”