Over at the Huffington Post, they’re trying to make hay out of Staff Sargeant Robert Tenpenny, who served with Jeanine McDonnell in Iraq, wearing his uniform and being seated behind McDonnell during his response to the State of the Union Address. They declare his presence “probably against the law” citing a directive barring “Attend[ing] partisan political events as an official representative of the Armed Forces, except as a member of a joint Armed Forces color guard at the opening ceremonies of the national conventions of the Republican, Democratic, or other political parties recognized by the Federal Elections Committee or as otherwise authorized by the Secretary concerned.”

The problem in their argument comes to this:

I know many of you to my ideological right are already leaping out of your seats and shouting “well then why were there men and women in uniform at the State of the Union address?” Pretty simple answer, actually. The State of the Union is not a partisan political gathering (as the Republican response clearly is).

Simple but incoherent. So it’s okay for uniformed military to attend a State of the Union Address, but not okay for uniformed military to attend a response to a State of the Union Address.

A speech by a Democratic president that Huffington Post likes is not partisan, but a response from a governor that they don’t like is partisan.

I suppose that if your mind can accept that, then yes, this is a terrible, terrible scandal.

UPDATE: I checked with a source close to McDonnell, and he noted, “in an abundance of caution, Tenpenny asked his commanding officers and JAG for approval to attend, which was given.”