If you followed today's coverage of last night's debate between the would-be Democratic successors to Ted Kennedy, you're well acquainted with the following theme: frontrunner Martha Coakley remained above the fray while Mike Capuano and Steve Pagliuca duked it out--and as a result, Coakley's going to waltz into the general election.

In this week's Phoenix, I size up the ongoing feud between Herald columnist Howie Carr and "Ernie Boch, III," his mysterious Blue Mass. Group-based tormentor. (Note: EB3, as he's frequently called, is no relation to car magnate Ernie Boch, Jr.) In the process, I argue that Carr doesn't really seem to understand his nemesis--and that, despite some strong ideological and biographical differences between the two, there are some noteworthy similarities as well.

As I watched Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs offer an unconvincing defense of Treasury Secretary-in-waiting Tim Geithner's tax-challenged ways during an appearance on Fox News Sunday, I found myself thinking: if this were a Republican nominee, liberals (e.g., me) would be rightly incensed.

But as the Globe's Joan Vennochi notes today, the double standard that Geithner is benefitting from might not just be about party.

It's easy, when grappling with questions like how mortage-backed securities actually work, to lose sight of the fact that Wall Street's current crisis has moral as well as financial implications.

So thank you, Joan Vennochi, for your column in today's Globe, which admirably captures that point. An excerpt:

The country's conservative moralists shake their finger at low-income home buyers who dared to make a grab for a humble piece of the American dream.