If you've ever wondered how instrumental the dishonesty of the conservative press is to Republican electoral hopes, consider the curious case of Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-OK) crusade to deny Viagra to sex offenders.

As part of the (ultimately futile) effort to delay the passage of the health care fix in the Senate, Republican lawmakers introduced a slew of hot-button amendments to be individually voted down, such as Coburn's amendment prohibiting sex offenders from obtaining Viagra through their health insurance coverage. As Talking Points Memo explained, their purpose was twofold: first, to gum up the works, and second, to turn the Democratic votes against the amendments “into negative campaign ads ahead of this November's election.” In case you doubt the purely political motivations behind Coburn's amendment, his own health care proposal does not include the Viagra provision.

Enter the Washington Times, whose staunchly conservative and devoutly dishonest editorial page published an editorial this morning denouncing “Obamacare's subsidy for the sexually depraved.” The Times attacked Senate Democrats for voting “almost unanimously Wednesday night to ensure the right of rapists and child molesters to have guaranteed access to government-subsidized Viagra,” and accused Democrats of playing politics with the issue for not wanting to force the House to vote on any Senate changes. The Times wrote: “Apparently, saving the House from an embarrassing vote was more important than protecting the public from chemically empowered predators.”

The Times went on to call this justification for voting against Coburn's amendment “nonsense” because “it had been clear for some time that the reconciliation bill would have to be changed. The Senate parliamentarian ruled that at least two provisions of the health care plan had to be stripped out to avoid parliamentary challenge.” Unfortunately for the Times, the simple chronology does not work in their favor -- Coburn's amendment was voted down at 8:21 p.m. on Wednesday, but the Senate parliamentarian issued his ruling on “early Thursday morning.”

It's willfully obtuse, and remarkably dishonest.

Now, fast-forward six or seven months when Republican senate candidate X airs a television ad attacking Democratic senator Y for “voting to 'ensure the right of rapists and child molesters to have guaranteed access to government-subsidized Viagra,' ” citing at the very bottom of the ad: “Washington Times, 3/26/10.”

From A to B to C...