Game, set, match to TNR? In a better world maybe…

If you’ve not tired of the “Baghdad Diarist” pseudo-controversy, The New Republic has published a statement defending and, to my mind, confirming the essential accuracy of their story. I doubt even this will be good enough for the hacks and harpies on the loony right, but it ought to satisfy reasonable observers. (Then again, being a pro-TNR type I would say that, wouldn’t I?)

Meanwhile, comic relief is provided by the fact that one of the Weekly Standard‘s main sources in their effort to discredit Scott Beauchamp’s story allegedly turns out, according to Media Matters, to have been a former male escort who has appeared in a number of gay porn films, a detail he felt it prudent to leave off his resume before joining the Marine Reserve. This does not in itself, of course, diminish his plausibility; it’s merely oddly entertaining.