Tu quoque

As the US elections in November draw closer, Michael Tomasky has been punching more shrewdly. This article in the Guardian commenting on this article in last Friday's NYT scores some telling points.

But, like much of his stuff, it's all the good ol' logical fallacy of "you're one too". For the partisan of one political faction to accuse the partisans of a rival faction of hypocrisy is simply hilarious. A couple of apposite adages:

• let he who is without sin cast the first stone
• people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones  

Politics is a sewer and to be effective politicians are, perforce, compelled to be sewer rats. To get emotionally committed to one group or other is evidence of either adolescent or arrested intellectual development.