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Josh Marshall has the skinny:

As Bill Clinton and John Edwards and Bill Jefferson and various others have made clear, Democrats do have scandals. Plenty of them actually. But here we have another good example of why Republicans so often have bad luck these days with bogus scandals they're so hyped up about or ones that actually are legitimate scandals but which get overrun by so much hysterical nonsense that the actual scandal gets forgotten amidst a lava-like deluge of The Crazy. In a few words, most of the right-wing press is just astonishingly bad.

Here's today's example. Yesterday I heard word on Twitter that ex-IRS Chief Douglas Shulman had visited the White House a whopping 157 times. The story started at The Daily Caller. It's not totally clear whether that was whopping or sub-whopping. But whatever. Clearly Shulman was there often enough to be in regular contact with President Obama about cracking down on the West Memphis Tea Party. When I first saw my usual twitter trolls yapping about it, the first thing that seemed a bit off was that, remember, Shulman was actually appointed by George W. Bush and remained in office through most of President Obama's first term. So presumably he’s not a really strong Democratic partisan.

And what's the real story (as reported by Garance Franke-Ruta)?

The public meeting schedules available for review to any media outlet show that very thing: Shulman was cleared primarily to meet with administration staffers involved in implementation of the health-care reform bill. He was cleared 40 times to meet with Obama's director of the Office of Health Reform, and a further 80 times for the biweekly health reform deputies meetings and others set up by aides involved with the health-care law implementation efforts. That's 76 percent of his planned White House visits just there, before you even add in all the meetings with Office of Management and Budget personnel also involved in health reform.

And this is the difference between regular, progressive-leaning journalists, and those right-wing journalists seeking to create (ahem, uncover) some scandal with which to smear the Left. Those attracted to the journalism profession just happen to be open-minded and curious with stellar listening skills, always seeking the truth wherever it might lead. Sure, many are progressive, but that's the type of person attracted to this profession.

It sure would be nice to get some hardy, conservative, legit reporters on the scene, wouldn't it?

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