The alleged outraged readers plant themselves, but that doesn't stop the Courier-Journal in Kentucky from propping them up in their opposition to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in what will be one of the closest watched races in 2008 behind the Presidential campaign. The Politico is already following the race here. This is the second smear campaign started by the likes of Think Progress against McConnell to make its way into the media. Here's the first.

There would be no controversy if Think Progress hadn't lifted a McConnell quote out of context from what was actually a positive story for McConnell:

“Our brave soldiers have protected us for six years successfully. If we brought all of them home today (terrorists) they would be back here, so we need to stay the course. It's gotten better and there is a dramatic decrease in causalities and we have begun to withdraw troops.” said McConnell. ”The polls are reflecting that there is a 15% increase in optimism in American's views about the war.

“I won't tell you everything is great in Iraq; it is not. But we want to keep a steady flow of funds so that we don't disrupt the military,” said McConnell. “Unfortunately, most of our friends on the other isle are having a hard time admitting things are getting better; some days I almost think the critics of this war don't want us to win. Nobody is happy about losing lives but remember these are not draftees, these are full-time professional soldiers.

Now take a look: note how they trim the quote, just as Think Progress and about 40 other liberal blogs eventually did.

Courier-Journal: Readers express outrage over McConnell comment

In a revealing moment of candor, Sen. Mitch McConnell expressed his feelings about the men and women in uniform, who are dying every day in Iraq and Afghanistan and whom he otherwise claims to support, when he said, "Nobody is happy about losing lives, but remember, these are not draftees, these are full-time professional soldiers." ... TROY TORSTRICK

The alleged outrage goes on but who is Troy Torstrick? Just another Lefty blogger it would seem. He left his name on a blog and post dedicated to calling then serving Congressman Tom Delay a whore. scroll And between ranting about Emperor Bush, or Karl Rove and the Republicans and denouncing a war that nearly everyone supported before it started,

War will Succeed (#3083)
by Troy Torstrick on October 1, 2002 at 6:52 AM

War on Iraq will succeed in 2 respects; 1) it will undermine the war on terror by diverting resources and 2) it will drastically increase the anti-American sentiments of millions of young Arabs and radical Muslims and spawn thousands of new terrorists hell-bent on America’s destruction.

I want to know why George Bush is so determined to undermine his war on terror, which he claimed shortly after 9/11 as his reason for being. Is it so that he can use the fear created by all the additional terrorist activity against America to push America into the fascist dictatorship he has wished for publicly on several occasions?

As we all saw, he and his party had no qualms about doing away with democracy in 2000.

he isn't exactly one to talk about supporting our troops. Then they feed it back to Democratic Underground and it gets fed back to TPM just to keep it going. Maybe they'll get lucky and some other media will pick it up. That's the way the Netroots play - fast, dirty and cheap, as in shot.

“Unfortunately, most of our friends on the other isle are having a hard time admitting things are getting better; some days I almost think the critics of this war don't want us to win. Nobody is happy about losing lives but remember these are not draftees, these are full-time professional soldiers."

Every objective observer of DC politics knows Senator McConnell has been nothing but supportive of our troops. That's why Freedom’s Watch, Vets For Victory, Families United, Band of Mothers, and Gathering of Eagles see McConnell as a go to guy when delivering a petition to Congressional leaders signed by over 65,000 individuals in support of the war.

With no regard for accuracy, a continuing desire to undermine the war and also to seek revenge for the defeat of Tom Daschle, the Moveon.org types in the Democrat Party will stop at nothing to end the solid conservative Republican leadership of Senator McConnell. And when certain liberals in the mainstream media see a chance to help them out, they rarely miss a beat.

As Right-leaning members of new media, we can help the conservative cause, but we had better be on guard. You can contact the Courier-Journal here if you'd like.

—Dan Riehl is a blogger and journalist. Read more of his work at Riehl World View.