INCONSISTENT STANDARDS? Reader James Lennon sends this:

I read your comments about the Gannon story, and I couldn’t agree more- bringing up personal issues is sooo sleazy… the link below, though, is really interesting because it details on myriad occassions when you, Glenn Reynolds, did exactly that. Which I thought you should review before you poo poo the liberal bloggers WHO ARE BRINGING DOWN A MAN WHO COMMITTED TREASON BY OUTING PLAME (And you think anti-war liberals hate America… This gy outed an undercover CIA agent for political retirbution. If Wolf Blitzer did that you’d call it treason, you hack- so let’s call a spade a spade).

Here’s a quick fact check regarding your history. SINCE THE CONSERVATIVE BLOGOSPHERE IS SO AMAZING AT SELF-CORRECTING, I BREATHLESSLY AWAIT YOUR RETRACTIONS…

My, how swift these lefty guys are to level charges of treason. However, the claim that Gannon “outed” Plame — which I think is what he’s referring to — seems rather weak, as Tom Maguire has noted in this post.

Lennon also sends a link to this blog post, which collects some InstaPundit references to the Kerry intern scandal by way of attempting to demonstrate my hypocrisy. Of course, for these to be comparable, several things would have to be true. First, you’d have to believe that anyone who asks a question in a White House press conference is opening himself up to the kind of scrutiny that Presidential candidates face. I doubt that the press corps believes that, nor do I. (Ironically, some of my links are to Democratic speculation that other Democrats were behind the intern scandal story,and to expressions of glee at it on the Dean and Edwards campaign blogs — but follow them all, as there’s nothing there I’m ashamed of, and I think my tone, and substance, is light-years from the lefty Gannon stuff I’ve seen).

Second, you’d have to believe that my references are the equivalent of digging up unpublished dirt and publishing pictures of a man in his underwear while engaging in tacky homophobic remarks, all in the process of writing about an unrelated topic.

Strangely, however, this post of mine is omitted from the list: “MY SO-FAR RATHER UNDERWHELMED TAKE on the Kerry scandal is now up over at GlennReynolds.com. Excerpt: ‘I have to say that, to me, how Kerry would do on the war is a lot more important than what (er, or who) he’s doing in the sack.'” I haven’t noticed a similar take on the Jeff Gannon story from the lefties. Maybe there’s something bigger there — though as I noted the other day, people like David Gergen and Howard Kurtz don’t seem to think so — but so far I haven’t seen it, and stuff like this isn’t doing anything to impress me with the seriousness of the people pushing it.

Neither is the excess capitalization. For a more serious take on these issues, you might want to read this post. Bottom line: “If Jeff Gannon is a hack who shouldn’t have been given press credentials, that can be proven by quoting his questions and questioning his qualifications. What the hell does his personal life have to do with the issue?”

Yeah. Why, that’s kind of like what I said about Kerry . . . .

UPDATE: Actually, it’s worse than that, as the lefty attacks seem to be conflicting with each other. As Mickey Kaus notes: “I’m trying to get up to speed on Gannongate, but I keep getting confused. If ‘Gannon’ did get a leak of classified documents, would that make him more of a fake reporter or more of a real reporter?” Kaus also accuses me of being too “decorous” about Eason Jordan’s personal life. But that’s not the story, so I don’t care.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More here.

And Ed Morrissey has some worthwhile thoughts.

MORE: Reader Joseph Fulvio emails:

Reading your lefty critic’s faux-outrage over Gannon’s ‘treason’ (in all caps, no less) was a lot like watching hipsters trying to be traditional during the holidays. They can’t quite stifle enough of their post-modern ironic tics to make it real. So, too, with concerns about treason and ‘support-the-troops’ head fakes coming from the Left; too calculated, contrived and, ultimately, phony.

Yeah. It’s not quite like watching Jerry Falwell fulminate about women losing access to abortion, but still . . . .