POLITICS: O'Donnell's a Hypocrite Prude!

Gawker has launched a spirited defense of its decision to print a controversial story about a booze-fueled near-sex romp by "reborn virgin" Christine O'Donnell. The wanna-be Delaware senator's personal life is legitimate fodder for media scrutiny because O'Donnell "lies about who she is," and "tells that lie in service of an attempt to impose her private sexual values on her fellow citizens," notes an article on the site attributed to Gawker staff. The story was sold to Gawker by a Philadelphia man who claims a drunk O'Donnell three years ago climbed into bed with him naked before telling him she wouldn't have sex with him because she was a virgin.

The piece has been roundly lambasted by O'Donnell (though she hasn't denied the details), the media and NOW officials, who portray the coverage as sexist for its "slut shaming," notes the site. Yet Gawker says it's O'Donnell who "seeks to 'shame sluts' on an hourly basis" while engaging in the behavior she condemns. "Worse," she believes people who hop into the bed of someone of the same sex suffer from an "identity disorder and are deviants." The "argument that someone's private life shouldn't be the object of public attention isn't really available" to O'Donnell, "who has manufactured a political career out of publicly casting judgment on the private behavior of others," Gawker concludes.