I've had my share of sand kicked in my face

Remember back in '04, when the right-wing bloggers were all worked up about Dan Rather and "60 Minutes"? They used phrases (for the first time) like "fact checking":

Mainstream media anthropologists often attach the adjective "free-wheeling" to the blogger culture -- ignoring the flip side of the brutally quick-fixing and 24/7 fact-checking nature of the medium.

and "multiple sources":

The only solution is for news consumers to get their information through multiple sources, a lesson that bloggers learned long ago. Talk to the prime movers directly when possible, insist on metrics when they exist, and compare and contrast versions of events told from several perspectives.

That's so cute. Reminds me of a friend, now sadly passed away, and his 3ish daughter. He brought the child to the studio, and told her: "Show Uncle Steve what you've got now." She turned around, bent over, pulled her little dress up and said: "I got big girl pants!"

That's what the wingnut-o-sphere seems like, that all of a sudden they got their big girl pants.

But then again, no. Because the latest excitement-du-jour for the wingnut media is:

• From the always cute American Spectator
• From the anonymous writer 'The Prowler"
  
• Used an anonymous source
• Uses a single source

What is it? This piece of . . . work:

For all of the posturing by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee during the testimony of former Department of Justice political appointee Monica Goodling, they and their Democrat colleagues in the Clinton administration went to far greater lengths to identify and track the political activities of career and politically appointed lawyers in the Department of Justice and elsewhere.

"We knew the political affiliation of every lawyer and political appointee we hired at the Department of Justice from January 1993 to the end of the Administration," says a former Clinton Department of Justice political appointee. "We kept charts and used them when it came time for new U.S. Attorney nominations, detailee assignments, and other hiring decisions. If you didn't vote Democrat, you weren't going anywhere with us. It was that simple."

Wow. Just, wow. There's your blockbuster, your headline, your . . .wait a minute, bub. A Right-wing advocacy site has a breathtaking exclusive by a Democratic insider? Not very likely.

Think of it: Young Democratic intern gets asked by reporter (and I use the term loosely) for known right-wing rag, about the insider scuttlebutt about Abu Gonzales and the US attorneys. How likely is that to happen? Sure, on West Wing they convinced Donna Moss that there were missile silos under the White House, but c'mon, this is the real world, not teevee.

Oh, and one other 'tell'? No Democratic insider would say: "...vote Democrat".

Like I said before, consider the source.