Republicans Are Bullies With Very Thin Skins

Back in the 2004 Presidential Election, various Republicans delighted in ridiculing the Democratic candidate John Kerry.  The vicious Swift Boat campaign converted John Kerry's combat experience in Viet Nam into allegations of cowardice and lying. Starting with the 2008 Presidential election, various Republicans (now called TeaPublicans), have spent countless minutes and column inches calling Barack Obama a list of names too long to list, but including fascist, communist, socialist, Islamist, traitor, and, let's not forget, un-American and not even AN American. 

In the face of these clearly false and defamatory claims, the so-called Liberal Media has dutifully reported (and still report)  these claims and accusations as "news" with little fact-checking.  Later this week I will be detailing this journalistic technique called "equivalence," lazy and dishonest reportage that gives equal weight to "both sides" of a story when, in fact, only one side is credible and/or honest.

Now, however, we have another example of the Bully who can't take it.  Sean Duffy, the WI representative who complained that he couldn't feed his family on a Congressperson's salary, was hoist on his own petard by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC)  that ran an ad highlighting Duffy's  complaint that he has to have his sushi flown in.  Poor Sean.

Duffy has his defenders, in particular the National Republican Campaign Committee that has accused the DCCC of being "childish." What gall that the same folks who have spent many years using every rhetorical device to diminish and denigrate their opponents are shocked that Democrats are allowed to play the same game.  I suggest there is one major difference between the concerted and coordinated attacks on Dems and the Dem's attempt at the same tactic:  The charges by the TeaPublicans are lies while the Dem's at least have truth on their side (they even used Duffy's own words in context).

This first lesson in "false equivalence" is simple.  When TeaPublicans accuse falsely and the Dems accuse truthfully, the so-called Liberal Media will report both cases the same way:  just the facts ma'am.  Except those facts are not equal:  one is a pack of lies and innuendo while the other is the truth.  To TeaPublicans and the media, it doesn't seem to make a difference, as long as the names are spelled correctly,