Burgess and Marini have recently pointed out that the leading contribution to
the damping rate of energetic gluons and quarks in the QCD plasma, given by
γ=cg2ln(1/g)T, can be obtained by simple arguments obviating the need
of a fully resummed perturbation theory as developed by Braaten and Pisarski.
Their calculation confirmed previous results of Braaten and Pisarski, but
contradicted those proposed by Lebedev and Smilga. While agreeing with the
general considerations made by Burgess and Marini, I correct their actual
calculation of the damping rates, which is based on a wrong expression for the
static limit of the resummed gluon propagator. The effect of this, however,
turns out to be cancelled fortuitously by another mistake, so as to leave all
of their conclusions unchanged. I also verify the gauge independence of the
results, which in the corrected calculation arises in a less obvious manner.Comment: 5 page
