Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.

James Taranto, in Best of the Web in the WSJ notes that Lefties have stopped trying to deny their double standard. They are now defending it.

She Sleeps With the Fishes Yesterday we noted that Stanley Fish had justified liberal double standards--trying to destroy Rush Limbaugh for his "misogynistic remarks," while tolerating worse from Bill Maher--on the ground that liberals are "good guys" and conservatives are "bad guys." This prompted reader July Linett to write us with an interesting thought experiment:

Although you point out some of the problems with his argument, I think there is more to it. For example, there are two men with guns. Both kill an innocent child accidentally. One of the men is an anti-Semite known for torturing animals. The other is a guy we like. Is it fair then to give the guy we like a pass and instead only put the anti-Semite in jail for the crime of shooting the kid? Admittedly, calling someone names is a far cry from the above, but as I read Fish, that's just about what he's saying. To put the question more broadly, what if the left applied lower standards to its friends not just when it came to the etiquette of political debate but to all forms of wrongful behavior?

There was someone with whom we wanted to discuss this matter, but Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.