I admire MoveOn and think they do a lot of good things. But I received a fund-raising message yesterday that said the following, and I have to wonder if anybody troubled to read this over:

If we can’t increase our budget, we might have to dramatically scale back or pull the plug on some of MoveOn’s most important election efforts this year.

Any sane person responds to a budgetary crisis by cutting back his or her least important expenses, not most. As written, it sounds kind of childishly passive-aggressive — do this or I’ll eat worms! And stick myself with a pin!

I’m sure that’s not how they meant it to sound, but the thought that they’ve become so blasé about their own fund-raising appeals that they don’t pay attention to what they’re actually writing isn’t much more attractive.