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In the Ring with Boxer and Condi

By now you may have already heard about the faux scandal being ginned up by the right about comments made by Senator Barbara Boxer to State Secretary Condi Rice during the Foreign Relations hearing on Thursday. At the same time they were poking fun at Senator Boxer's last name ("low blow", "sucker punch") The NY Post and FOX News both ran stories about how the Senator had the temerity to point out that both herself and Secretary Rice have no personal stake in President Bush's escalation of the war in Iraq but that many others do. What was intended to be a statement to highlight this disparity was twisted by the rightwingers into a slur against Rice for being childless.

I first caught wind of this "scandal" when I happen to catch Hannity & Colmes discussing it last night. Luckily there were no heavy objects within easy reach otherwise I might have been tempted to throw it at my television. Hannity was bloviating in his usual sanctimonious style, chiding Boxer's supposed slur but then going on to slur Democrats in general, saying such comments will be par for the course under their leadership. My first thoughts were "oh the hypocrisy of it all, given this is the same group of people who had an unhealthy obsession with Bill Clinton yank for so many years."

But then I remembered that pointing such things out has increasingly become an exercise in futility. For no matter how many times one does it, hypocrisy is just one word that will never register with the Sean Hannitys, Ann Coulters, and Glenn Becks of the world.

Update: The always indispensable News Hounds has a clip of the Hannity & Colmes segment I discuss above.