Mark Salter, a supremely gifted writer, has a piece very worth reading, “The Media’s Pathetic Double Standard.” Salter’s core point is this:

Today’s “birthers,” are no more offensive or weird than those who believe the Bush Administration was complicit in planning the attacks of September 11 or invaded Iraq to increase the profits of defense companies. And, yet, it only seems to be rude or asinine behavior on the right that gives the press and other Washington elites the vapors.

That is quite true — and it is no less troubling for having been true for quite a long while now.