BY AND LARGE, I tend to agree with Kevin Drum's argument that we Dems shouldn't try to emulate the mindless press-bashing of the right. But on the narrow question that Armando raises here -- namely, the press corps' brain-dead insistence that lying about personal matters is lying, while lying about policy is . . . politics! -- we do, in fact, need to be firm with our friends in the Fourth Estate. The mainstream media's claim to respectability rests almost entirely upon its supposedly solemn commitment to eschew tabloid values and report the news in a way that actually helps the citizenry perform its civic duties. And if we Democrats need to start actively shaming them into taking that commitment seriously, then, by all means, let the shaming begin!