Hello shoe, meet the other foot

From NewsBusters:

They say you shouldn't bite the hand that feeds you. But the 44^th President of the United States doesn't seem to be worried about that.

President Barack Obama, still with no fear of being overexposed, made the rounds on five Sunday morning talk shows on Sept. 20 to make another attempt at winning the hearts and minds over on his vague health care proposal.

According to Obama, alleging he wasn't doing any "media-bashing," mentioned the three major cable news networks by name, and said they were the ones enabling the "rude" behavior that some of their on-air voices have decried by giving it so much attention.

"I think it's important for the media, you know - not to do any media-bashing here - to recognize that right now, in this 24-hour news cycle, the easiest way to get on CNN is or Fox or any of the other stations, MSNBC is to say something rude and outrageous," Obama said on CNN's Sept. 20 "State of the Union." "If you're civil and polite and you're sensible and you don't exaggerate the-bad things about your opponent and you know, you might get on one of the Sunday shows. But you're not going to be on the loop. And, you know, part of what I'd like to see is all of us reward decency and civility in our political discourse."

And this was a theme in his other appearances. He made a similar statement about being "rude" on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

"I think, that frankly, the media encourages some of the outliers in behavior, because, let's face it - the easiest way to get on television right now is to be really rude," Obama said on ABC's Sept. 20 "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." "If you're just being sensible and giving people the benefit of the doubt and you're making your arguments, you don't, you don't get time on the nightly news."

Interestingly, Obama seemed to have no problem yucking it up at the White House Correspondents' Dinner with comedian Wanda Sykes, who said she hoped conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh's kidneys failed. But the Commander-in-Chief urged those in Washington to "disagree without being disagreeable" and thus falling victim to the 24-hour news cycle.

"Well, look - I think that we have an obligation in Washington, as leaders, to make sure that we are sending a strong message that we can disagree without being disagreeable, without, you know, questioning each other's motives," Obama said on NBC's Sept. 20 "Meet the Press." "When we start caricaturing the other side, I think that's a problem. And unfortunately, we've got, as I've said before, a 24-hour news cycle where what gets you on the news is controversy. What gets you on the news is the extreme statement. The easiest way to get 15 minutes on the news, or your 15 minutes of fame, is to be rude."

Obama called the coverage of conflict "catnip to the media," which includes cable television and blogs.

"One last point I've got to make, Bob and that is I do think part of what's different today is that the 24-hour news cycle and cable television and blogs and all this, they focus on the most extreme elements on both sides," Obama said on CBS's Sept. 20 "Face the Nation." "They can't get enough of conflict. It's catnip to the media right now. And so the easiest way to get 15 minutes of fame is to be rude to somebody. In that environment I think it makes it more difficult for us to solve the problems that the American people sent us here to solve."

Whether or not the media, or at least the media that is most sympathetic to the president's policies, will follow his advice remains to be seen.

I would think Obama was less of a hypocrite if there was any evidence that he had ever used the platform of his political office, either the Illinois state legislature of the US Senate, to publicly condemn the outrageous attacks on President Bush.

The fact is that the Democrats began the modern era of nasty politics with Ted Kennedy's attacks on Robert Bork in the floor of the Senate. Rather than distance themselves from old Ted the rest of the Jackass party rushed to adopt his tactics.

Ronald Reagan was accused of wanting to deliberately starve senior citizens. Newt Gingrich got his picture on the cover of Time Magazine as "The Gingrich Who Stole Christmas" and we won't even bring up the treatment of Sarah Palin.

But now that the little tin messiah is getting a rather watered down dose of what his colleagues have been dishing out (with the added exception that what is being said about Obama is actually true) these many years suddenly the "politics of personal destruction" are a threat to the survival of the Republic.

Well cry me a frakin' river. Listen up, anyone who will still associate themselves with the Democrat party after its conduct in recent decades loses any standing to complain about the conduct of others.

You got that? If you have not separated yourself from the Democrat party in protest of its conduct since the Reagan administration then you have, by your choice to associate with it, made yourself a partner in its actions and you have thereby removed yourself from the normal protections and considerations granted to participants in the civil society.

No Democrat possesses any rights which any decent and civilized person has any moral duty to respect.

Of course Democrats still (unfortunately) have certain legal rights which civilized persons must respect but when it comes to our discourse it is absolutely open season on them.

In fact I would argue that it is the moral duty of every decent person (defined as that majority of the population who identify themselves as conservative) to hold the left up to every kind of mockery and vilification. Force them to pay a heavy social price for their destructive and evil philosophy.

Add "political liberal" or "progressive" or "statist" or whatever you want to call them to the list of people like Klu Klux Klansmen and members of NAMBLA who are utterly beyond the pale and have no part with civilized company.