For most people there are no consequences from this, outside of the lack of a social life and the occasional cry into an Appletini. In others — like this one — there are real-world effects.

Now that I think about it, Kline’s attempts to disguise his legal justification for supoenaing medical records could have been read by Operation Rescue as a kind of selling out of its–and his–principles. But, perhaps because that disguise was so thin that it fooled no one, Operation Rescue could overlook the subterfuge . . . especially since it was in service to their agenda.

But your larger point is well taken: there’s not even a little victory here that I can see. The same is also true in the case of their Woman of the Year award. The base was mobilized in both cases . . . only to have revealed to itself how small it is.