Charles Krauthammer has a good point: the whole "moral issues drove Bush's re-election" story is a media-concocted load of crap. He deftly juggles and re-arranges survey statistics (which seems to be a necessary skill these days) to point out that War and Foreign Policy, and Economic Issues, were, in fact, of much greater concern to the electorate.

But in his attempt to point out how something so unfounded and meaningless is picked up and ballooned out by the media in order to have a coherent story and sell advertisements, he falls prey himself to another annoying media habit: accusing the "liberals" of, well, of everything, or at least of being patently ridiculous.

Aren't the Republican Party leaders themselves claiming a great moral mandate, and attributing their win to the religious right? Wasn't it Karl Rove's great strategy to mobilize those missing evangelicals? Bush has made no secret of leading with his faith, relying on churches and other religious organizations to help him campaign. How is this suddenly a liberal bogeyman? Why is it brilliant strategizing for the Republicans to scream wildly about morality and God, but a sign of liberals' humiliation and sense of moral superiority to talk about how the Republicans are screaming wildly about morality and God?

Newpapermen irk me. I can't believe I sometimes still want to be one of them.