Media politely look away as Hatch's bill blows up in his face

Remember when John Kerry told a joke at George W. Bush's expense, and -- because the wording was slightly vague, and because he was John Kerry -- the news media pretended he had made a gaffe of epic proportions by insulting members of the military?  Even though it was abundantly obvious that he hadn't; that he had insulted Bush?

See, the media loves a good political misstep -- when it comes from a Democrat, of course.

Maybe that's why Sen. Orrin Hatch's Wile E. Coyote-style attempt to make political hay out of Richard Blumenthal's misstatement about his military record isn't getting much attention -- Hatch is a Republican.

In the wake of the Blumenthal revelations, Hatch introduced a measure that would make it illegal for a person to make false claims about his or her military service. A canny political maneuver to capitalize on Blumenthal's misstatement? Not quite: It turns out that Illinois Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk, GOP icon Ronald Reagan, and current Republican Senator Lindsey Graham have all made inaccurate claims about their military record. Graham will actually have to vote on Hatch's bill if it comes to a floor vote. Awkward!

This would seem to be exactly the kind of clumsy political maneuver the media loves to obsess over -- a Republican Senator introduces a bill that would criminalize statements like those made by his Republican colleague, who would have to vote on the bill? Irresistible -- if they were Democrats. 

And yet the media has politely looked away.  A brief mention on NPR, a segment on Rachel Maddow's show, and that's about it, other than some blog posts.  Oh, and a Politico article that says Hatch's bill "would not apply to Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), a spokeswoman for the senator indicated Tuesday" and that the spokeswoman "did not prejudge whether the law would or wouldn't apply to the Republican senate candidate." Those two statements appear inconsistent, but Politico made no attempt to reconcile them.

UPDATE: Politico comes through with a story about a purportedly bumbling, stumbling political team -- the White House. No mention of Orrin Hatch.