Mel Gibson, David Irving and Christopher Hitchens.

So Christopher Hitchens thinks that Mel Gibson is "sick to his empty core with Jew-hatred.", I wouldn't disagree with that assessment but considering that Hitchens also believes that David Irving is a "Great historian of fascism" there does appear to be a double standard. Some pissed up actor ranting about "the jews" is hardly in the same league as a professional holocaust denier who's disseminated neo-nazi propaganda for decades. What can account for this double standard? My own guess is that the key to this is Hitchens's Trotskyism, which is despite his new found admirers on the right is still sufficiently important to him that he is willing to go on Radio 4 to argue that Trotsky was "the perfect combination of the man of ideas and man of action, and says Trotsky's writings still make the hairs on the back of his neck stand up."

Trotsky was so maniacal in his beliefs that the world may have gotten off lightly when Stalin outmanouvered him for the control of the USSR. Irving is important to Hitchens because of their mutual assaults on the reputation of Winston Churchill, Hitchens's attack drew heavily on Irving's "research", according to the Historian Andrew Roberts in his joint biography of Hitler and Churchill. This despite the fact the article was written several years after Irving was confirmed as a liar following his failed libel action again Deborah Lipstadt.

Glass houses spring to mind.