I don't think it is vastly overstating the case to say that, on the matter of whatever-the-hell-else is going on with Hillary Rodham Clinton's e-mails, The Washington Post just declared war on The New York Times.

In fact, Ms. Clinton's emails have endured much more scrutiny than an ordinary person's would have, and the criminal case against her was so thin that charging her would have been to treat her very differently. Ironically, even as the email issue consumed so much precious airtime, several pieces of news reported Wednesday should have taken some steam out of the story. First is a memo FBI Director James B. Comey sent to his staff explaining that the decision not to recommend charging Ms. Clinton was "not a cliff-hanger" and that people "chest-beating" and second-guessing the FBI do not know what they are talking about. Anyone who claims that Ms. Clinton should be in prison accuses, without evidence, the FBI of corruption or flagrant incompetence.

(And I hope that it escaped nobody's notice that this volley from the south coincided with another over-hyped NYT nothingburger in which various anonymous Chaffet…er…sources repeated something we'd already known for weeks. This is getting embarrassing.)

And I don't think it's speculating wildly to assume that the Post's expression of exasperation might have originated with a certain unassuming, never-would-know-he's-in-the-room hardass to whom shoddy journalism is a personal affront.

This should be great fun the rest of the way.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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