If they can't stand up to YouTube, how can the Rs stand up to AQ?

Josh Marshall over at Talking Points Memo is reporting here that the Republican CNN/YouTube debate will probably not take place as scheduled, because Rudy Giuliani is indicating he will not participate and Mitt Romney appears inclined to follow his example.

Imagine that!

Bill O'Reilly has been scathing about the Democratic candidates declining an invitation to a debate on Faux, contending in his smarmy way

If they can't stand up to Fox, how will they stand up to Al Qaeda?

Well, isn't that just special!

Here's the nut from Josh:

It's looking like there might not be a GOP CNN/Youtube debate. Rudy appears to be opting out and Mitt Romney doesn't seem far behind. And GOP party functionary Hugh Hewitt is already laying down a line of covering fire for the retreat, arguing that CNN and Youtube are biased against Republicans.

It would be fun to represent these two cases as somehow parallel, except:

They are not parallel.

Here are some significant differences:

1. The Democratic candidates never accepted the Fox invitation [IIRC]. The Republicans were signed up for the CNN debate before it was scheduled.

2. What the Democrats declined to participate in could be anticipated to be a repeat of the 2003 Fox debate in which Fox talking heads threw absurd gotcha questions at them. What the Rs are refusing is to face the people in a repeat of a highly successful Democratic debate a few days ago.

3. CNN is basically 'fair and balanced', to the extent, anyway, that both parties accuse it of favoritism towards the opponents. Anderson Cooper, in fact, looked very much like a journalist Monday. No one has ever accused Fox of being fair and balanced (except themselves, of course). Most recently, the Coultergeist has even suggested a technique for Fox to deep-six the Dem candidate, whoever it is, in 2008, without even a hint that Fox might want to be 'fair and balanced'.

And finally, we have the assertion by the Rs that it would be stupid for a party to participate in a debate on a platform that did not favor them. Isn't that precisely what they have belittled the Democrats for declining to do?

Come on, Republicans:

If you can't stand up before the American people, how can we trust you to stand up to Al Qaeda?