In other words, the democratic election of a Muslim to Congress signals to Goode that, if we don't heed his advice, we're headed toward another September 11. Bad enough, right? You've got another Republican following in the proud footsteps of George Allen, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Glenn Beck and a host of other prominent Republican politicians and pundits in needlessly resorting to bigoted rhetoric. Well, in citing Goode's latest statements, Daily Kos diarist Kagro X posted a front-page entry originally titled "Virgil Goode: Still Retarded". Damn.

Maybe it's just me, but using such pejorative language to point out the Goode's bigoted comments is rather hypocritical. What Goode said is A. it's prejudiced, B. it's indefensible and C. it's pathetic. And I'm not writing this to point out some sort of equivalency between Goode's shameful words and Kagro X's unfortunate title. My point being: We're better than this. What good is people-powered progressive politics if we allow ourselves to fall into the same traps we so appropriately ridicule the extreme right for failing to avoid? Needless to say, it doesn't look good. What Goode said is bad enough. So blatantly playing to people's prejudices speaks for itself and requires in response stern criticism that avoids making the same mistakes the critiqued has.

By needlessly using "retarded" in an otherwise informative story (the title of which has since changed to "Virgil Goode: Still ..."), we've given the right the smallest foothold from which to mount a counterattack that would only serve to distract people from the true heart of the matter: A sitting Congressman is likening the democratic election of a Muslim colleague to helping enable the next September 11. We've allowed conservative pundits to point to a single unfortunate title as an offense as bad as the entire litany of offensive Republican commentary. We've encouraged the Joseph Ragos of the old media to continue to refer to the blogosphere as "The Blog Mob". In short, and though the much-needed correction has been made, we've unintentionally thrown the right a lifeline. And it didn't have to be that way.

Look, I realize by writing this I'm playing into the stereotype of the progressive circular firing squad. What's more, by writing this I'm helping the very Republicans I hold in disregard by giving them the ammunition they desire. But if we're going to fight for the values I know we stand for, we still have to stand for them, no matter the consequences. Feel free to point out the error of my ways, but I believe - and know - we're better than this.