With the Olympics coming on, what's more poignant than the image of the sprinter hopefully awaiting the official time, only to learn he missed the record by 1/100th of a second? I'm in that same heartbroken mood for the Associated Press this morning. The wire service came so close to equalling the world record for revealing the Republican party affiliation of someone finding himself sideways of the law. Check out the first sentence from this AP story of April 17th:
A Republican congressional candidate was charged Thursday with felony burglary and criminal trespass stemming from an encounter last year with an ex-girlfriend.
Come on, guys. With just a little editing effort, you could easily have written "Republican congressional candidate so-and-so was charged . . . ", thereby tying that illustrious mark for outing Republican evil-doers.
Oh well. I suppose it's the intention that counts. Had the–allegedly–wayward candidate been a Dem, would AP have informed us at all? Personally, I go for the MSM style that slips the affiliation in softly, along the lines, round about the 11th para: "Democratic leaders said Mr. Smith had been a well-regarded member of its caucus."
H/t James Taranto, WSJ Best of the Web Today.