Fair's Fair: Update to Gang Ethics

Conservative blogger John Cole of Balloon Juice, who I accused of being unable to be fair to his political opponents, has written a piece defending Kos of The Daily Kos against the charge that there was something unethical about Kos being paid to blog for the Dean campaign. Click permalink for the rest...John writes:

Let's review:

- Armstrong Williams is secretly paid $240,000 to be an advocate for administration policies, informing no one of the payment.

- The DasvhlevThune blog is secretly paid by the Thune campaign, all the while representing itself as mere partisan supporters.

- Kos and his associate are paid to do political work for the Dean campaign, disclose their relationship repeatedly, and make sure that people know that they are working for Dean and support Dean.

How anyone can confuse this issue and think it is the same thing is simply beyond me. While the Armstrong Williams and DaschlevThune cases are clear conflicts of interest, with no disclosure, there is no such ethical issue or appearance of impropriety from the MArkos and the folks at the Daily Kos.

So fair-mindedness is not completely absent among fierce partisans.