Well, the right wing has revived MoveOn.org as a whipping boy, a Liberal Satan that they all agree they can pile onto and attempt to destroy. Pretty much all the Republican candidates have taken it upon themselves to completely and utterly vilify MoveOn.org. Why? Because they called General Petraeus “General Betray-Us.”

McCain actually called for MoveOn to be “thrown out of the country” (he later claimed that he spoke in error due to his “outrage”), and Giuliani is daring Hillary Clinton to condemn MoveOn. org or be labeled a hypocrite.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I think such name-calling campaigns are less than mature and respectable for any large public advocacy group, or even any one critic. Sure, it can be fun–there was a satisfying edge to Al Franken’s “Rush Limbaugh Is a Big, Fat Idiot.” It might not be enough to point out that Franken at least wasn’t making fun of Limbaugh’s name with bad puns, but it is rather more excusable that (a) Limbaugh ain’t no soldier (in fact, like so many chickenhawks, he dodged the draft), and so few see it has foul play when he is attacked for his actions, and (b) while being funny and comical, everything that Franken wrote was either fully true or was high satire (for example, Franken’s fictional account of Limbaugh serving in Vietnam). In other words, Limbaugh deserved it in spades, and the worst of it was less name-calling than it was simply pointing out facts.

But such things are not what the Republicans claim to be furious about; they claim that MoveOn.org crossed a line by attacking a man in uniform. That, we are told, is unacceptable and deserves, even demands condemnation.

However, what MoveOn.org did with its recent ad was virtually amateur hour when it comes to right-wing spokespeople and organizations. Take Rush Limbaugh, as a simple example.

One of the few times I ever listened to more than just one minute of Rush Limbaugh was many years ago when he was attacking Senator Inouye, a decorated WWII veteran who won the Medal of Honor, and repeatedly called the Senator “In No Way.” But that’s hardly Limbaugh at his worst. He has recently called Barack Obama “The Magic Negro” and has had racist impersonations of Al Sharpton on for a long time; is it any less objectionable to be a racist? When Clinton was in office, Limbaugh referred to his daughter Chelsea as “the White House dog”; is it OK to viciously attack the president’s 13-year-old child? Limbaugh has called Democrat Tom Harkin (also a war vet) “Dung Heap Harkin.” Other name calling includes “Nikita Dean,” “Ned Lament,” “Dick Turban,” “Nazi Pelosi,” “Bela Pelosi,” “Dingy Harry [Reid],” “Barack O’McNabb,” and many others. He has absolutely no problem with calling decorated war vets names, often far worse than “General Betray-us.”

But wait, you say, Limbaugh is just attacking politicians, and that’s okay–ignoring for the moment that many of these politicians are also former soldiers, and Petraeus himself is a presidential hopeful, in his own mind at least.

Then how about this statement made by Limbaugh just the other day, where he called soldiers who oppose the Iraq War “phony soldiers”?

And in a rather strong show of irony, MoveOn.org was not the first to use the name “Betray-us.” Guess who was? That’s right: Rush Limbaugh. He used it last January to smear Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, who also opposes the war–and is also a Vietnam War veteran:

LIMBAUGH: By the way, we had a caller call, couldn’t stay on the air, got a new name for Senator Hagel in Nebraska, we got General Petraeus and we got Senator Betrayus, new name for Senator Hagel.

So, when will Giuliani condemn Rush Limbaugh? Did Giuliani call for Republicans to condemn Limbaugh back in January?

Of course not. That would violate the long-standing Republican principle of applying double standards to conservatives and liberals. And we can’t have that.