Parsing Mickey Parsing Rush Parsing Borger Parsing Ken

Is it just me, or is the blogosphere really into Rush these days? Who's got the juice, here?

CBS portrayed Ken Starr as implicitly supporting the Democrats in the senate confirmation battles. Starr of course is too lame to take a position on anything--oh, that would be bad, but that would be bad, too. Are we done now? But CBS's Gloria Borger and crew end up using Starr against the Republican position. Limbaugh attacked this full force Friday, partly using an email from Starr saying CBS had fudged the context.

Mickey Kaus is recursively delving (with Instapundit looking over his shoulder) into the dispute over whether CBS misrepresented Ken Starr and Limbaugh misrepresented CBS.

Kaus concludes that CBS was fair to Starr and Starr is just trying to back and fill. Kaus is right to say Starr is a wimpy booster of lawyers, which is to say, unprincipled shills, but Kaus is working too hard on a losing cause.

This Guardian story captures the Borger-style press ethos perfectly, taking Starr out of even the context Kaus argues for, adding a goofy garbage poll ("most Americans favor formaldehyde over benzene as an air-conditioning agent") and adding all sorts of "cruel comma" pseudo-context (Starr prosecuted Clinton, you know, so he's especially believable when he criticizes Republicans, but must not be trusted when he criticizes Democrats). Thanks to JustOneMinute. Gloria believes the Republicans are in error, that comes through loud and clear, and all of Mickey's lawyering won't fix it.