“This Is Ridiculous”

by digby

Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post is a fairly good gauge of where the village conventional wisdom is at any given point. And here’s what he had to say on David Shuster today:

Shuster: If the Democrats said it was wrong for Joe Wilson to say “you lie” on the House floor, shouldn’t they also be condemning Grayson for suggesting the Republican plan is “die quickly?”

Capehart: No. These are two different things. Joe Wilson shouted at the President of the United States during a joint session of congress which is a clear violation of House rules. Representative Grayson was speaking on the House floor to his collegues. Sure it’s hyperbolic language about policy but it was not a personal insult to anyone in the room.

And hey, if he has to apologize for “die quickly” whoever came up with “death panels” and “drop dead” and “pull the plu oon grandma” has to apologize too. This is ridiculous.

Yes, it certainly is. But all hissy fits are ridiculous. This one is particularly stupid because of the “death panel” stuff the Republicans have been flogging all summer, but the hissy fit is always made more potent the more stupid and hypocritical it is. This one may not end up with an apology, but it will probably be successful in creating a false equivalence between the two parties which is about the best they can do at the moment.

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