Y'know, my washboard abs and I are a little uncomfortable adopting the right's "Michael Moore is fat" line of political argumentation...
Seconded, I think.
Allow me to digress into an analogy for a second with the promise that I'll come back around and make a point.
Competition is one of the advantages of capitalism. Many good things can be said in favor of it. However, the problems of capitalism also stem from it's competative nature. Competition has no relation to fairness, to right or wrong. Therefore, as we all well know, if a company can increase it's efficiency and profits through some immral, reprehentious actions, then its competitors are forced to follow suit, or or perish in the competative environment. (this is overly simplistic, but, the point remains)
In politics, there are similarly efficent means of achieving and maintaining power. George Orwell was rather interested in them. While these means of maintaining and achieving political power work, it of course doesn't mean we should use them. But, as with capitalism, when one team begins using such tactis (which I believe has happened in the case of the Republicans), the other team begins losing.
It doesn't take long for the other team to diagnose these tactics, and to begin to adopt some of them. I see this as what Kos and Atrios have been doing from time to time. Emphasis more on what works, to the detriment of how one should act. Maybe I'm being sententious here. Atrios and Kos may have a point that the means are worth the ends. I'm a little tired, I think I'll end this in an invitiaton for someone else to expound on the subject.
I've thought about this some more, and I don't think I'm being sententious, or even moralizing at all. It's a question of practice. It's not a moral slippery slope but a prudence to not get into certain habits. I noticed The Poor Man, noted Genius, has a post along these lines today. So, at long last I do indeed agree with the Apostropher.
I apologize if these comments have been boring.