Patriotism? What Patriotism?

See, that title is me questioning your patriotism. Because, as you know, I'm a Republican, an all we do is question people's patriotism.

At least that's what you would think from the media. I was reading this article on Max Cleland's tacky little Crawford stunt and noticed this line at the end:

Cleland lost his own 2002 bid in Georgia for re-election to the U.S. Senate after a bitter campaign in which Republicans questioned his patriotism.

Yup, that's Reuters for you, fair and balanced, not like those evil neocons at Fox. Not "ran a contriversial ad" or "ran an ad that accused him of not doing enough to fight terrorism" but instead "questioned his patriotism".

Michael Crowley of the New Republic (a magazine not known for it's sympathy to Republicans)has written an excellent analysis of the Cleland saga a while ago.

The key paragraph:
But that's not what happened. The ad, though sleazy in its use of Osama and Saddam, didn't question Cleland's patriotism. It questioned his political courage and judgment. It focused narrowly on his behavior in office and his actual votes against the Homeland Security Department. With images of Bin Laden and Saddam flashing onscreen, a narrator declared that, "As America faces terrorists and extremist dictators, Max Cleland runs television ads claiming he has the courage to lead." The ad then listed Cleland's votes against the Homeland Security Department and said he was stalling "the president's vital homeland security efforts." It concluded: "Max Cleland says he has the courage to lead, but the record proves Max Cleland is just misleading."

Interestingly, the person in the Slate article who is quoted saying that the Republicans were questioning Cleland's patriotism is John F Kerry. But Reuters presents it as a known fact rather than a politician's opinion.