Cross-posted on e.politics

Earlier today, Josh linked to a piece on the excellent website Spot-on that finds a Democratic connection to the "Gays for Giuliani" video that came out (hah!) last week. Specifically, author Scott Olin Schmidt points to the fact that the site mentioned at the end of the video is registered to Mike Rogers, who writes for Huffington Post in addition to his own site and who has been controversial for outing Republicans in the past.

Now, Ryan Davis, the video's creator, claims that he slapped the URL in the video as part of the joke without even checking to see if it was available for purchase, but he is clearly working against the candidate whether or not he's working with Rogers: on his MySpace blog, Davis says, "Keeping Rudy from getting the nomination and helping secure a Democratic victory in '08 is vital if we'd like to make progress on all sorts of issues." So regardless of whether he and his buddies created the video on their own or in concert with others intent on undermining Giuliani's candidacy, their intent is clear: the "for" part of "Gays for Giuliani" is an exercise in irony.

And, well, so what? Welcome to a new world of citizen involvement in politics! Schmidt compares the video to efforts by Democratic California Governor Gray Davis in 2002 to undermine his strongest Republican rival (in part by tying him to Gray Davis), and I can see the point he's making, since we again have an avowed Democrat trying to weaken a leading candidate on the other side during the primary process.

But again, so what? None of the facts presented in "Gays for Giuliani" is untrue, as far as I know, even if the performance a bit hammed-up in places. Presenting information to educate the public about an officeholder or candidate's past or current political positions is a legitimate political action, regardless of whether you do it straight (hah!) or using irony — and the right to satire is reserved to all of us, not just to writers for The Daily Show and Colbert Report. Let a thousand Swift Boats launch! But unlike the SB Veterans for "Truth," and like "Gays for Giuliani," let's stick to the facts from here on out.

– cpd