I object to the moral equivalence. I assume you can go out into the conservative blogosphere and find personal attacks on liberals but you won’t find anything that remotely approaches the Palin family smears, the Clarence Thomas smears, the smears on several Reagan cabinet members, etc. And you will certainly not find the smear campaigns picked up and advanced by the mainstream media, which obviously has no standards whatsoever when a conservative is being attacked. Anything goes.
I agree. If a Democratic Sarah Palin had emerged, I think that conservatives would actually be saddened and would say so, in no uncertain terms. It would be a mournful recitation, not an angry, vindictive one. It all goes to the central fact of conservatism (at least, the Christian kind): we are all on a journey and we definitely make mistakes along the way. It is not that we err, but what we do when we have erred, that makes all the difference. We would lament a liberl Sarah's errors and misjudgment, point out her logical and philosophical flaws and generally try to keep the rhetorical bridge unburnt.
After all, anyone who comes to their senses might actually be MORE effective for good than one who never strayed in the first place. To err is to have one's heart and mind rubbed in the consequences and have the opportunity to connect the proper dots for those who never had to cope that way.