Equal Treatment, Please

Page One complains about a former Fletcher aide, Brett Hall, criticizing Congressman John Yarmuth's aide, Stuart Perelmuter for writing and starring in a local gay movie.

Page One had acknowledged previously that "the movie is questionable for someone in such a high-profile position of Press Secretary."

Now the blog argues:

It’s one thing to discuss Yarmuth’s perceived negatives in an election year but it’s an entirely different ball game when you begin attacking and lying about a candidate’s staff. Staff whom, we remind you, are not elected officials.

The problem with this line of reasoning, as applied by the Demo-blogs, is that it gives Democratic staffers a pass on scrutiny while holding Republican staffers to an entirely different -- and more rigorous -- standard. In short, it's viewpoint discrimination.

Case in point. Last Fall, we heard incessant complaints from the left about a staff member of Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell who supposedly started an internet campaign to "slime" the Dem's Schip poster child, Graeme Frost. It later turned out that the aide, Don Stewart, had merely commented in an email about a story that had originated elsewhere days earlier and already had gone viral.

And though the chronology of events is quite clear for anyone who cares about the facts, some blogs keep trotting out the canard, months after they should have known better.

I agree with Page One that Perelmuter was entitled to pursue his acting career, and I could care less about the subject matter. But fairness -- the left is always demanding fairness -- requires that the same standard be applied to Republican staffers.