Ah, the Golden Age of media punditry

How it shines in hindsight. This year is the 10th anniversary of the Clinton impeachment -- an anniversary, as Phil Nugent points out -- the American media do not seem very eager to recall (except Joe Klein in his best, Politburo-airbrushing-the-past mode). We'll bring up Watergate whenever we can, but the press' performance during the latter part of the Clinton administration was utterly shameful.

Funny, how those of us who cherish the idea of an evil conspiracy of liberals running the media never recall the coverage of Whitewater and Travelgate and the Foster "murder" and the cocaine planes landing in Little Rock ... and all the glories in the Starr Report, that august publication which found god-fearing Republicans eagerly printing up semen-stained porn in the name of the United States Congress.

But then there's the editorial board of The Dallas Morning News, which recalls the Lewinsky affair with a degree of bittersweet fondness. The editors belittle the whole thing as a tempest in a teapot that really just hurt those nasty ol' Republicans who got a wee bit overexcited, even though none of the major Congressional players failed re-election. They point out how many of those involved (Bill, Hillary, Gore, Matt Drudge) are doing just fine these days, they manage to hang the whole thing around Hillary's neck and never once recall the reprehensible baying of the media pack.

Who says the Golden Age of media punditry is dead?