My whole idea is in the title.
There's a "tabs" link next to the save link, which appears when you hover over a link post. That does the job.
The thought just occurred to me: I'd love to see an option to make it a default action upon clicking a link. I tend to open the link and comments at the same point as a rule.
mk what do you think about having the ability to make this the default in your "controls"?
You can click almost any link with the mousewheel/middle mouse button and it will open in a new tab. I think that works in all major browsers.
On Mac and Windows, if you click a link while holding down the "Ctrl" key, it will open a link in a new tab. This is pretty awesome on laptops where you can press "Ctrl" and click a link with just one hand.