Republicans and their Tea Party alter ego count on the fact that the accusations are exciting but the corrections, retractions and amplifications are less so. Why would anyone support a party that does things like this? Even if you agree in principle with some of the things for which the GOP stands like lower taxes, small government, etc. Why would you lower yourself to support them or their candidates? Why would you go anywhere near people or a party that has happily embraced the three things I outlined above? Supporting the Republicans (or their nom du jour, Tea Partiers) means that you support lying and forged and manipulated data and information. If you are in favor of lower taxes and small government but are in favor of personal freedoms, you could opt for the Libertarian Party. If you are for small government and religious conservatism, the Constitutionalist Party is out there for you.
The point is that there are alternatives for your views if you don't want to support liars and forgers.
The rest of us have to do a better job of expecting this and when I say "The rest of us" I am including my friends in the NAACP (they've already issued a mea-culpa and seem to get it) and Obama administration. When hit pieces get released that contain ugly accusations at prominent Democrats, we've got to allow some time to investigate them before passing judgment and issuing condemnations. We know the Republican Modus Operandi now and need to treat anything remotely like these things as highly suspect.
Sources
San Francisco Chronicle article on ClimateGate investigations exonorating the scientists and the theories of global warming
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/19/MNNS1EFLDU.DTL
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
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