H/t Bryan. It’s been more than a week since TNR’s returned from vacation, and we’ve yet to get answers to questions surrounding the Beauchamp affair. TNR has managed, however, to attack The Weekly Standard’s William Kristol, calling him a thug.

We’ve got our full round of Liberal talking pointsl here. From calling Republicans thugs to saying we’re relying on Nazi-like propaganda to sell the war in Iraq.

Kristol’s sensibility is perfectly summed up in one representative passage from a recent issue. The topic was The New Republic‘s decision to publish an essay by Scott Beauchamp, an American soldier serving in Iraq, detailing some repugnant acts he said he and his comrades committed. Legitimate questions have been raised about this essay’s veracity. (We’ve been publishing updates on our continuing efforts to get answers to them at tnr.com.) But Kristol rushed past these questions, immediately declaring the piece a “fiction.” Offering up his interpretation of why tnr would publish such slanders, he concluded, in an editorial titled, “They Don’t Really Support the Troops”:

Of course, turns out Beauchamp’s stories are, indeed, fiction. The Army has concluded an investigation, information sources TNR contacted have said Beauchamp’s stories are questionable at least, and Beauchamp has changed details of his claims. But never mind facts. That doesn’t fit TNR’s agenda.

TNR must be filled with idiots. The dust was settling, the story was slipping from people’s minds, and TNR feels the need to revive it. They’re in a hole filled with crap, and they’re digging deeper.