It's rather unseemly to see Democrats complaining, in a Senate hearing no less, that it's problematic for someone who wants to be the Ambassador to Belgium to have given money to a group that opposed John Kerry. But, that's exactly what happened,

"A Senate hearing that began with glowing tributes to a St. Louis businessman and his qualifications to become ambassador to Belgium turned divisive Tuesday after he was criticized for supporting a controversial conservative group.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, grilled nominee Sam Fox about why he donated $50,000 to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during the 2004 presidential race. The group of Vietnam veterans made unsubstantiated allegations against Kerry -- then the Democratic presidential nominee -- and charged that Kerry did not deserve the medals he won in the Vietnam War.

"Might I ask you what your opinion is with respect to the state of American politics as regards the politics of personal destruction?" Kerry asked near the end of the hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

..."So is that your judgment that you would bring to the ambassadorship, that two wrongs make a right?" Kerry asked.

"I did it because politically it's necessary if the other side's doing it," Fox said.

Fox said he played no part in crafting the Swift Boat message and called on Congress to ban or more carefully regulate 527s.

But Kerry said the incident raised questions about Fox's fitness to serve as an ambassador.

...Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, a presidential hopeful and chairman of Tuesday's hearing, said he found Fox's responses "unsatisfying." He said he would have preferred if Fox admitted it was a mistake to contribute to the Swift Boat group."

The Democrats will never forgive the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth for telling the truth about John Kerry's war record and costing him the election. But, this is taking it a little too far.

If say, if Democrats can hammer Republicans for giving money to anti-Democratic groups, then why aren't contributions to liberal groups like the NAACP and MoveON fair game? I know, I know, the Republicans shouldn't stoop to the same level as the Democrats.

But it is worth noting that although the Dems are perpetually complaining about divisiveness and partisanship, they're also the ones that have driven it to new heights or perhaps more accurately, to new lows, in DC. You can see in everything from the way they handle judges, to their demented hatred of Bush, to their attempts to undercut the war in Iraq for political purposes. This is just the latest example of the sort of hyperpartisan mentality that makes it impossible for the Republicans in DC to genuinely cooperate with the Democrats on almost any issue.

PS: I have nothing against partisanship, even brass knuckled partisanship, but when you take it to the level that the Democrats do, where funerals are treated as mere opportunities for political grandstanding and winning a war is secondary to petty political concerns, it becomes destructive.