Remember how Republicans were all criticizing Democrats for not taking part in a debate hosted by Fox News? Remember how Democrats were supposed to be “afraid of journalists,” and were threatening the freedom of the press itself?

Get a load of this. When MSNBC–a network with a bevy of conservative pundit shows–hosted the Republican debate, and Keith Olbermann, a noted critic of the right wing, quarterbacked the coverage of that debate, it prompted protest from the Republican front-runner as well as other candidates:

The Giuliani campaign privately expressed its concern to NBC News about Olbermann’s role in the days leading up to last Thursday’s debate.

… MSNBC spokesman Jeremy Gaines said a Giuliani campaign representative had called NBC News to complain about Olbermann being part of the debate telecast following his commentary. Olbermann was not told about the protest until after he came off the air Thursday, he said.

Other GOP presidential campaigns have expressed concerns about Olbermann to NBC News, according to a New York political strategist who requested anonymity to protect his clients.

Isn’t that just precious? Here you have the Republicans blasting Democrats for not wanting to have their entire debate, moderators and all, hosted by a rabid right-wing propaganda outfit, but when Republicans have to deal with a debate hosted by a network with someone not even on the debate floor being a left-wing pundit, they all start whining.

Every single ounce of criticism against Dems for not wanting Fox News propagandists in every corner of their own debate just melted into slag. After Republicans protested about a left-winger commenting on their debate, how could they possibly criticize Dems for not wanting something ten times stronger? Maybe that’s why all the complaints made by the Republican campaigns were made privately.

I’d comment on the utter hypocrisy we’re seeing from the right wing here, but since it’s been established that such behavior is the status quo from that crowd, I guess it’d be pretty much redundant to do so.