The New York Times has a lengthy profile this morning of Pam Geller, the unhinged and virulently Islamophobic blogger who has made a name for herself as the hateful voice of opposition to Manhattan's proposed Park51 Islamic center -- or, as Geller inaccurately calls it, the “Ground Zero mega-mosque.”

There's always a tough decision-making process that must be undertaken before publishing pieces like these. On the one hand, Geller is a fringe nutjob whose poisonous rhetoric is best ignored, and putting her in the nation's paper of record risks lending her a false patina of legitimacy. On the other hand, she's managed to carve out a significant media presence for herself without any help from the Times, so it's helpful, in some regards, to let people who might already be familiar with her know exactly who she is and, more importantly, the disgusting things she says and believes.

The Times opted for the latter, and they paint an unflattering portrait. Geller is, essentially, a glorified internet troll who got her start posting anti-Islam missives in the comments sections of conservative blogs, and transformed that pastime into her very own blog, Atlas Shrugs:

Ms. Geller commented prolifically on Web sites focused on Islamic militancy, like Little Green Footballs. “She was always one of the first ones to start going way out there,” said Mr. Johnson. (Ms. Geller, in turn, dismissed him as “a reviled figure” who had abandoned his principles.) A fellow commenter called Pookleblinky urged Ms. Geller to start her own blog. She named it in homage to Ayn Rand's championing of individual rights -- Ms. Geller, unlike some of her allies, favors abortion rights -- and, perhaps, to conjure the weight of the world on her shoulders.

But for the encouragement of Pookleblinky, Geller wouldn't have broken into the big time. And now, according to the Times, she serves as a sort of mouthpiece for a shadowy network of Islam-hating extremists that may or may not have ties to neo-Nazis:

The next turning point for Ms. Geller, a few months later, was a “counter-jihad” conference in Brussels. It threw her -- and Mr. Spencer of Jihad Watch -- together with anti-Islamic Europeans whom even some allies considered too extreme, like Filip Dewinter of Vlaams Belang, an offshoot of a Belgian party banned that was for racism [sic] and was allegedly founded by Nazi sympathizers.

Mr. Johnson of Little Green Footballs, a former comrade, attacked Ms. Geller and Mr. Spencer -- whose interest in Islam began with family lore about a Greek great-grandfather killed by Turks -- for meeting with “neo-Nazis.” They insisted they were not responsible for the views of everyone who stands in a room with them (though they have lobbed similar guilt-by-association accusations at Muslims, including the people behind Park51).

Ms. Geller went on to champion as patriotic the English Defense League, which opposes the building of mosques in Britain and whose members have been photographed wearing swastikas. (In the interview, Ms. Geller said the swastika-wearers must have been “infiltrators” trying to discredit the group.) And she formed a lasting partnership with Mr. Spencer.

It is partly philosophical: They and the anti-Islam movement in Europe share a fear of Muslim takeover. And it is partly practical: He helps her raise money and source some assertions; she helps him spread his ideas and, he said, “get results.”

It's troubling, obviously, that Geller and her cohorts say, do, and believe this offal. What's worse is that -- as the Times notes -- Geller is a voice of rising influence among powerful people of the American right:

Ms. Geller, though, had some suggestions. She and other bloggers quoted selectively from the imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, stressing his description of United States policy as partly responsible for 9/11. They branded him a “radical Islamist.” They declared that his talks against extremism and violence were “taqiyya” -- the hiding of true beliefs, religiously sanctioned for Muslims, usually minority Shiites, under hostile rule. And Ms. Geller said, without evidence, that the center's financing might be tied to terrorists.

Her assertions became common talking points for Republican leaders and other opponents. Soon, Rick A. Lazio, running for governor of New York, was calling the imam a “terrorist sympathizer.” Rush Limbaugh was describing Park51 as a “victory mosque.” Mr. Gingrich was talking about fighting “stealth jihad,” a favorite Geller phrase and the title of a book by Mr. Spencer.

It's through these people, and the media outlets that uncritically indulge her hateful buffoonery, that Pam Geller does the most harm.