James Taranto, on the Senate Democrats:

As National Review’s Byron York explains, when Limbaugh talked about “phony soldiers,” he was referring to phony soldiers–that is, to men like Jesse Macbeth, an “antiwar” activist who claimed to have served in Iraq, received a Purple Heart and killed innocent civilians, when in fact the Army discharged him before he even completed basic training.

If Democrats want to support the phony troops, it is their right to do so. But when they try to interfere with Limbaugh’s livelihood, that amounts to an effort at creating a McCarthy-style blacklist.

The Fox report says that 41 Democratic senators signed this letter, which means that 9 or 10 did not (depending on how you count Joe Lieberman). Will they speak out against their colleagues’ intimidation efforts? And where are the Republicans in all this? With the Democratic Party increasingly in thrall to hate groups like MoveOn and Media Matters, America urgently needs politicians of either party with the courage to take a stand for decency.

Don’t hold your breath.

They told me that if George Bush was reelected, brave voices of critics would be silenced. And they were right:

For daring to raise a voice and raise some money for the troops (all proceeds from the sale of his items go to the National Military Family Association charity), this T-shirt seller earned the wrath of MoveOn.org’s lawyers. MoveOn.org chief operating officer Carrie Olson brought down the sledgehammer. She sent a cease-and-desist letter to CafePress demanding that PoliStew Cafe’s items and other anti-MoveOn.org merchandise be removed from the store.

Free speech for me, but not for thee–the motto of the left.

Does anyone think that this kind of thing is any different at any other government agency? CIA, FBI, TSA? Or even HUD, or NASA?

Or even large corporate bureaucracies? A good friend just got out from under an employer that was an old-boys network that promoted incompetents and punished good employees because management worked with filtered info.

One of the reasons we need smaller government–at least that way, rogue agencies wouldn’t be able to do as much damage.