“Smear campaign”. The implication of the phase is diminished these days thanks to the moral ambiguity surrounding all things political. The left says it’s a carefully planted kernel of revenge, the right says it’s an uncovering of facts.

I’m not sure how much this story is getting reported outside of Canada, but it truly burns my ass to see a government supposedly — allegedly — concerned with fairness, due process, and democracy attempting to pull a stunt like this.

Jeffrey Kofman works for ABC news as a journalist. Prior to that he worked at the CBC for over decade. Kofman filed a report from Baghdad earlier this week pointing out the obvious — many US soldiers want to return home. When asked what he’d say if Donald Rumsfeld were present one soldier replied, “I’d ask him for his resignation.” These aren’t the kind of sound-bytes that Washington likes.

But the report itself doesn’t matter — The Whitehouse didn’t think so, anyway. Rather than respond to the ‘criticism’, they planted Druge Report with a headline that Kofman was both openly gay and Canadian. Dogs attack when they’re cornered, so at least Bush has an excuse…

Either way, kudos to the Drudge Report for getting into the prestigious “Tool of the Bush Administration” club (say hi to CNN for me). For the record, someone give Matt Drudge an updated fact sheet: A government interested in inciting homophobia and jingoism should probably be questioned.

Kofman sums up the situation quite nicely on his own: “I think you just have to kind of look at this and roll your eyes and move on.”