That sweet, sweet, both-siderist poteen hich wipes Beltway memories so conveniently clean.
Yesterday's big winner was Barry McCaffrey who you might remember as a "Four Star US Army General Ret. Joint Commander SOUTHCOM. Clinton Cabinet Drug Policy. Nat Sec Professor West Point. Council Foreign Relations". Which retroactively scares the hell out of me considering that old Bar' is clearly very, very bad at the job of analyzing critical problems and figuring out what caused them.
But what Barry may lack in the "being able to see staggeringly obvious shite that is staring him right in the face" department he more that makes up for in the "spouting Both Siderist drivel" department, thus guaranteeing him a job shining the seat of a chair with his ass at the Beltway Media table from now until the end of time.
And then, Dana Bash jumps into the fray with her hot take on how Both Sides Do It.
From Media Matters:
CNN's Dana Bash blames “both sides” for a lack of decorum during State of the Union
I think about this speech -- more than the person who is in the White House, more than the person who is in the speaker chair, but about the institutions of both.
And that was out the window from the beginning, whether or not the president saw her put her hand out or not. He didn't make eye contact with her, there was absolutely no attempt at all -- to the end, when the speaker, who has admonished her caucus on more than one occasion to present themselves with decorum and so on and so forth -- she was just angry.
JAKE TAPPER (HOST): She ripped up the speech.
BASH: She ripped up the speech. I was just texting with a source close to her who said -- I know this is probably a little obvious, but that was not planned. That was an emotional moment. That was a genuine reaction to what she just heard the president --
WOLF BLITZER: Well, she ripped it up and then she threw it -- threw it away.
BASH: Oh, and she threw it down, and there are lots of reasons for that.
...
The fact that both sides, everybody was -- everybody is so on edge, and even in this moment where usually they try to be on their best behavior again, they didn't even try.
So should Dana or Barry or any other Very Serious Media Person drunk on Both-Siderist poteen ever stumble across my crappy blog, for their benefit I will repeat what I have already written dozens of different times in dozens of different ways,
See, we already had a perfect, eight-year test case to see what would happen if Democrats walked on egg-shells and treated the unhinged, rage-drunk Republican Party with kid gloves. No loud noises. No sudden movements. Instead, the Democrats twice elected a calm, rational, humane, honorable, compromise-prone Centrist president who ran on a message of hope and unity and who, in the middle of two wars, a global economic collapse and a health care debacle all of which were brought to us courtesy of Republican policies offered the GOP every possible opportunity not to be racist, seditious assholes.
In return they told Barack Obama to go pound sand and then elected the King of the Birthers.
So why don't you just fck right off, Barry.
And take Dana with you.
Republished with permission from Driftglass
