Blame the CNN

Fred Barnes, the predictably loony-tune editor of the loony-tune Weekly Standard, moans piteously today about the Republibacle last night, calling it "Two Hours of Humiliation" and wanting desperately to blame the whole thing on the CNN. "I don't know if the folks who put the debate together were purposely trying to make the Republican candidates look bad, but they certainly succeeded," he mutters, but can't make that premise stand for even one more sentence. "True, the candidates occasionally contributed" comes next.

Still, Barnes gives it the old Harvard try (do all these wingnuts wind up there?), blubbering...

The most excruciating episode occurred when Cooper allowed a retired general in the audience to drone on with special pleading in favor of allowing gays in the military. This was a setup. The general had asked a question by video, then suddenly appeared in the crowd and got the mike.

Except not quite. That episode (excruciating it was) happens to be the only part of the debate I actually saw. The general didn't "suddenly appear and get the mike." Moderator Anderson Cooper announced before the general's YouTubed question ran that the general was in the audience. And after the candidates (I defer to the Rs on that term) had answered, Cooper asked the general if his question had been answered. The general said no, and explained why.

The exact same thing happened during the CNN-sponsored Democrat debate (a fiasco too - this has not been a vintage year for politics) - that time a preacher, if memory serves.

Barnes' lament sputters to an end with "a CNN-You Tube debate is not a serious forum," sniff, sniff - but some rightie bloggers (nameless here) reportedly profess outrage that the general, it turns out, is serving as an advisor to the Clinton campaign. How can a Democrat be allowed to ask a question at a Republican debate, they wail. I didn't know a person had to be a registered Republican in order to ask a Republican a question.

Anyway it turns out the general, according to himself, is.

Edit: Last YouTube-sponsored debate, I meant to say - the Democratic one - although it might have also involved CNN, I'm not sure.