Had you heard about “Reid-gate?” What? you don’t pay attention to poorly-run right-wing blog aggregators the way I do? Shame…

For those of you without the patience to follow those links, here’s the skinny. An excerpted interview on a Nevada TV station showed Senator Harry Reid mentioning that he’d heard Osama bin Laden might have been killed in the recent Pakistan earthquake. As it turned out, Reid heard that on NPR. But that’s not important right now.

The right side of the media went wild upon hearing this. From the Wall Street Journal’s Website to the tiny tots of the blogosphere, there were calls for Reid’s head, for possibly leaking classified information. The Journal Online’s John “I Used to Write for the Paper Version” Fund got it started with a subscription-only screed entitled “Senator Sieve.” Foxbot Michelle “My Headshot Will Bite You” Malkin ran with the story under the demure headline “HARRY REID: BLABBERMOUTH.” The list goes on and on.

What was going on here? Conservative blogger and N.C. civics teacher Betsy “I’ve Never Heard of Me Either” Newmark hit the matter right on the head, albeit unintentionally:

This is a scandal! If senators can’t be trusted with top secret information, they won’t be able to perform their Constitutional obligations to oversight of the Executive branch. They must be trusted to keep their big yaps shut. And this guy goes off blabbing to the local news station! What a jerk! His security clearance needs to be revoked. This is so much more serious than anything that Scooter Libby is accused of doing.

If I may borrow from Ms. Newmark’s copious supply of exclamation points - Aha! See? Everybody leaks! Including - no, especially - those America hatin’ left-wing cut-n-runners! Leave Scooter alone! This is WORSE!

There are some questions here, to be sure. Why exactly would the Pentagon want to conceal the news of bin Laden’s death? Perhaps because they’re embarrassed that apparently they were slightly less quick-moving in finding him than plate tectonics? Because bin Laden’s death would inspire al Qaeda to take revenge on… the Earth’s crust? And what conceivable political advantage does Harry Reid gain by leaking the story? Does this cast a negative light upon the administration’s mountain range management abilities?

All valid questions. But there’s a larger point:

Not a single one of those “journalists” or bloggers had anything to say about the possibility that the man who masterminded the murder of 3,000 Americans might be dead.

That’s right, the political, practical and spiritual leader of al Qaeda, the man who plunged my beloved New York and our country into chaos, the guy who is the reason behind the entire War on Terror, and the single most wanted fugitive on the planet might be dead. And what’s the response? “Harry Reid leaked! Maybe!”

Can we take a breather from the ongoing partisan cockfight and think about that for a second?

Since the question of whether Reid leaked classified information was cleared up, not much has changed. Those who published the accusations have either left ‘em dangling or printed semi-retractions in their footnotes. [Michelle Malkin wins the prize for her excellent work in this department: “Update: Scott Johnson at Power Line follows up on the Blogometer’s round-up, which includes claims from Reid’s defenders that he got his information from news reports.” See? Somebody claimed that somebody else said something that might have made this entire piece a big stupid lie, but I don’t have time to look into it, and besides, I like the “BLABBERMOUTH” headline.] The urgent national priority of exonerating Scooter Libby by association is still being pursued with all the touching zeal and inaccuracy of a “Save Ferris” T-shirt.

John Fund’s original piece now resides, uncorrected, on the Republican National Committee’s very own website. They know it’s not true, but letting the accusation dangle can only do good things from their perspective. Meanwhile Osama bin Laden - and any discernable sense of shame in American politics - still haven’t been found.