BEWARE -- ZOMBIE LIE ABOUT TO ATTACK

I don't understand this headline from Greg Sargent at the Plum Line:

Whoops! RNC Admits Screwing Up With Suggestion That Health Care Reform Could "Discriminate" Against GOPers

You probably know the story already: a "survey" included in a Republican National Committee fund-raising letter included this question:

It has been suggested that the government could use voter registration to determine a person's political affiliation, prompting fears that GOP voters might be discriminated against for medical treatment in a Democrat-imposed health care rationing system. Does this possibility concern you?

But is it true that the RNC "admits screwing up"? Um, just barely. Sargent and Time's Michael Scherer were merely told by an RNC spokeswoman that the question was "inartfully worded." That doesn't even qualify as an acknowledgment of factual error, or even significant tactical error. The full statement:

Although the question was inartfully worded, Americans have reason to be concerned about the failure of the Democrats' health care experiment to adequately protect the privacy of Americans' personal information. From bank accounts to tax payments to personal medical care data, the bill gives government bureaucrats access to a range of Americans' personal information but does little if anything to protect that data from misuse and abuse. This is one of the many reasons we have called on President Obama to slow this bill down so that we can get health care reform right.

This is the warning sign of a zombie attack. The RNC is making it clear that the Republicans think this is a lie they'll find useful in the near future, the way they found "death panels" useful after we thought it had been laughed off the public stage. It's going to come back. It's going to be yet another unkillable GOP zombie lie.

It may be remanded to e-mail forwards and World Net Daily. Or it msy be spread by Sarah Palin, or Glenn Beck, or Newt Gingrich, or Betsy McCaughey, or a few congressional back-benchers from safe GOP districts, or all of the above. Or, hell, Charles Grassley might pick it up. But somebody's going to keep it alive. This one isn't going to go away.