So predictable

The GOP apologists at National Review have discovered a new concern for privacy. I've linked out of courtesy that they wouldn't show me, but here's the whole post so you don't have to click over.

Thank God we live in a free country, where you can speak your mind on public issues, without fear that those who disagree will respond by exposing anything you've ever done that you regret or that could embarrass your family.

Oh, wait, never mind. We have to know, according to some, about Joe the Plumber's tax lien, and how he doesn't have a license - which, if the smear artists bothered to check the law, he only needs for commercial work, not residential work.

This is the way our opponents operate now. Destroy anyone who stands in your way. Humiliate them. Make sure that anyone else who ever wants to skeptically question Barack Obama knows that every last bit of their dirty laundry will be aired for all the world to see. Bristol Palin, Trig Palin, — hey, it's all fair game. They've got to make an example of them. Show them that this sort of dangerous speech won't be allowed in the New America.

Remember the man in the plaid shirt, standing at the town meeting in one of Norman Rockwell's "Four Freedoms" paintings? He wouldn't recognize this country anymore.

Right. Tell that to Scott Beauchamp and Graeme Frost. Tell it to the Walmart clerk who said something flippant about Christmas, the call center kid at CNN who said something flippant about the 2 second X on Cheney's face and the photographer for the NYT who took photos -- on assignment -- of Cheney's house. Tell it to those kids who received death threats when Malkin posted their contact info because they were protesting the war. Sure, it's the angry left who ruined civil society.

Oh, and all that talk about obstructionism and the sacred nature of up or down votes in the Senate? That is so 2004. Now we must protect the filibuster. Coming soon, a resounding call for transparency in government and limits on executive power.

[More posts daily at The Newshoggers and The Detroit News.]