(Cross-posted from Left in the West -- Matt Singer)

Chris Bowers at MyDD wrote in a rather hopeful tone yesterday that it was just possible that the attempt by Manuel Miranda, thief, and Charles Hurt, partisan hack, to target Harry Reid had been shut down by the fact that Reid had said absolutely nothing that wasn't already in the public record.

If only it were that simple.

Rush Limbaugh jumped onto the cause yesterday. Conservative blogs were all over it.

And this morning, Charles Hurt has another story. This time Sen. George Allen, R-Virginia, and Senator Frist are being quoted. They're definitely kicking it up a notch to give this story legs. Still no mention of the fact that it has been part of the public record for a year that Democrats had concerns based on the FBI files.

Meanwhile, the Center for Individual Freedom (a think-tank that, surprise, surprise, is lauded on its homepage by none other than George Allen and Administration officials) is filing a complaint against Harry Reid, again ignoring that Harry Reid only repeated what has been in the public domain for a year.

And Murdoch's media empire has started its first lurching movements into the fight. The New York Post, that high-minded journal, today editorializes on the matter.

What's amazing, though, is that everyone is missing a more fundamental issue. The Post writes that some Democrats are upset about an email Saad accidentally sent to Stabenow. If the Bush Administration was nominating someone who had threatened me to a lifetime post, I'd be pretty damn upset, too.

None of us know what's in the FBI file. Hence, none of us really know why the Dems are fighting this appointment. But it also means that no one's privacy rights were violated and no rules were broken.

The right-wing media machine's cylinders are firing. Now is no-time to slow-down.