From the Bowels of the White House

And speaking of sanctimonious opportunism, how about the inflated rage of the White House over the Newsweek report of U.S. soldiers desecrating the Koran? This just in from White House spokesman Scott McClellan: "It's puzzling that while Newsweek now acknowledges that they got the facts wrong, they refused to retract the story. I think there's a certain journalistic standard that should be met and in this instance it was not." "The report has had serious consequences," he said. "People have lost their lives. The image of the United States abroad has been damaged."

I'm trying to take the outrage seriously, but Scotty dear, you must be joking. First, some entity (like maybe a government) gets the facts wrong (like maybe connecting Saddam Hussein to Ossama bin Laden, or fabricating the existence of weapons of mass destruction). As a result, people lose their lives (oh, let's say somewhere in the range of 1,600 U.S. soldiers) and the image of the U.S. abroad has been damaged? And all this is due to the corrosion of journalistic standards?

Try again, Mr. McClellan. Try again.