I guess I am just confused by Kevin Drum’s moral compass. He’s basically telling us that we need to seriously guard against abandoning a healthy respect for the importance of the truth. I get that part of it. But the context is an accusation made by Harry Reid that he has a very credible source that called him unsolicited and told him that Romney doesn’t want to release his tax returns because he didn’t pay any taxes for 10 years. Kevin Drum seems absolutely certain that no one ever made this phone call to Harry Reid. I have no idea why he is so certain. But Mr. Drum seems to have no compunction whatsoever about accusing Harry Reid of lying, even though he doesn’t have any sources to cite backing up his claim that Reid is lying.
I think this is very strange. Most media observers who have criticized Reid have argued that he shouldn’t make such brash accusations based on nothing more than a single source who isn’t willing to go on the record. That’s applying a reasonable journalist’s standard to a politician, which is dubious to begin with, but at least it is an honest opinion. The idea is that it is wrong to accuse Romney of something so serious without more corroborative evidence. So, using that standard, how the hell does Kevin Drum think it is okay to question Harry Reid’s integrity without one single piece of evidence to back him up. He is completely guilty of doing exactly what he accuses of Harry Reid of doing, which is making an accusation without any real evidence to back it up.
And Kevin is trying to bail himself out by attacking one critic who went too far in excusing deceitfulness. That’s bullshit. You can’t take your worst critic and use them as a magic wand to exorcise all your more serious critics.
Kevin Drum has absolutely no basis for questioning Harry Reid’s integrity, but he has done so with gusto. Harry Reid didn’t just say that Romney is lying about his tax returns. He asserted that he learned that from a credible source. Drum doesn’t even claim to have a source.
So, if Mr. Drum is right about Reid, Drum can call someone a liar with absolutely nothing to back him up but Reid can’t call someone a liar with absolutely nothing to back him up.
I don’t get it. I don’t get it at all.
