First, I would like to state I mostly agree with Kevin Drum's insights. I enjoy reading his blog.
SCALP HUNTING FOLLOWUP....At the end of a post yesterday about the recent success of the longtime conservative crusade to hound public figures (mainly media figures) out of their jobs, I said: "It might be time for liberals to realize that even if we manage to collect a few scalps of our own along the way, conservatives gain strength from promoting this brand of warfare far more than liberals do. I hope we're not just being useful idiots by joining in this game."
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/
However, his diatribe (2 posts and he still doesn't get why he is wrong) about the Gannon "outing" is just bland pox on both houses crap that gives centrists a bad name. To point out the hypocrisy of the White House firing Arabic interpretors, denigrating homosexuals for political gain, denying them basic civil rights in some cases, and then using a homosexual to shill for the administration under the guise of an independent news source and leaking national security secrets to the same "reporter" is definitely fair game. It shows the priorities of this administrtation. Terrorism, War in Iraq, and protecting U.S. serviceman=low. Attacking the the Democrats, playing partisan politics, misleading the American public=high.
The homosexual angle on this story doesn't mean much to me, but it does shine a light on how this administration is willing to snow the American people. The "real" story is the manipulation of the press by the government. However, I don't care what angle is needed to get this story to the American people it needs to be told. Drum's fretting over the tactics is beyond irrelevant. This is war buddy, Social Security is just one battleground. We need to attack them on all fronts.
Secondly, the merits of the cases on the right and left are completely different. It is like saying person A and person B should both be locked up. Person A raped and killed someone. Person B went over the speed limit, they both broke the law so lock them both up. This moral equivalism garbage has got to stop. If the Democrats were in control of all branches and the cases were more alike then that would be a good exercise in ethical judgement, but the circumstances are nothing like that and to pretend so is lunacy.