12 September 2009

 

Decorum Be Damned

 

-- by Mike Murray

 

That was the headline of a Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial a couple of years ago.  Decorum be damned.  The piece was meant as encouragement to Congressional Democrats to ignore the rules.  The Plain Dealer’s editorial board was overwhelmingly comprised then (and remains so today) of registered Democrats.  (One PD columnist – Connie Schultz – is even married to a lefty politician:  U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown.)

 

The Plain Dealer’s encouragement of members of Congress to ignore traditional rules of civility – and, in the process, to give George W. Bush and other Republicans one very difficult time – was, plain and simple, an outgrowth of party loyalty.  Yes, I am accusing them of bias.  And of the even greater sin of journalistic fraud.

 

Because, now that a Democrat occupies the White House, those same “journalists” have reversed themselves 180 degrees on the matter of decorum.  Suddenly, civility toward a sitting president is crucially important.  Our very Republic, it would seem, hinges on the respectful treatment of Barack H. Obama.

 

Gee, who’d a thunk it?  Leftists (and don’t bother arguing the fact that that’s what most members of the Old Media are) radically changing their arguments to suit their political purpose?  What, you think them  too principled for that?  (Hold on a sec, while I get those Florida time-share brochures for your perusal.)

 

Democrats, it seems, have two sets of rules:  one for themselves, another for everyone else.  Recall their indignation over concerns surrounding Obama’s recent speech to our nation’s schoolchildren.  They were stunned that people would object.  How could anyone, they wondered, have a problem with kids being encouraged by their prez to stay in school?

 

Well, they did.  In 1991, when George H. W. Bush announced his intention to do so.  Back then, leftists howled.  The National Education Association (an extremely liberal organization) called it “a waste of time and money.”   Congressional Democrats, too, got in the act.  They prodded the General Accounting Office to investigate – and they held their own hearings, too!  (The non-partisan GAO, by the way, found nothing untoward in Bush’s remarks.)

 

Bush did not, for example, make a blatant play for political gain with his speech – as Obama did.  Obama’s Department of Education (which is mandated, it is worth noting, to stay out of curriculum matters) provided a “study guide” to schools.  A guide that was little more than political propaganda.  It initially included assignments requiring students to declare ways in which they were “inspired” by the president, and to enumerate ways in which they would “help him.”

 

Following public outrage, those provisions were dropped.  But many more offensive ones remained, including encouragement to “read books about President Obama,” and to select words and passages from his speech that they found meaningful.  (And they were still asked the leading question, “Did the president inspire you?”)

 

The day after that blatant attempt at indoctrination came Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress.  (Speech number 264 of his short presidency, by one CBS reporter’s count.)  As Obama droned on about how his health care “reform” proposal would be sugar and spice, and everything nice (all gain, no pain), one Republican member of the House lost it.  Joe Wilson involuntarily ejaculated the words “You lie!” after Obama claimed that the changes he was pushing would not make it easier for illegal aliens to receive taxpayer-funded coverage.

 

Well, denizens of the left went ballistic.  They were positively livid at this supposed breach of protocol.  How dare Wilson call the president a liar?  I guess they had forgotten just how many times Congressional Democrats had called George W. Bush one during his eight years in office.  And that Obama, while a senator, had himself heckled enthusiastically during Bush’s speeches to Congress.

 

No matter.  Wilson apologized.  He telephoned the White House, but was not even permitted to speak directly to Obama.  Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (Obama gatekeeper, and self-imagined “tough guy”) instead fielded the call.  Wilson also apologized publicly.

 

None of that is good enough for Democrats, however, who smell political blood in the water.  Egged on by their pals in the mainstream media (and by buffoons at MSNBC), Speaker Nancy Pelosi has opted to pursue the “public flogging” option.  She has demanded that Wilson humble himself on the floor of the House and offer yet another apology.  If he refuses, she will seek an official rebuke – which would require him to stand before her and be ridiculed (with a battery of television cameras rolling, no doubt.)

 

The lesson in this is that it’s okay for a Democrat to say darned-near anything he or she wants about a GOP president.  But a Republican had better not even think about doing the same with a Democrat.  Especially one who’s been elevated by the press to Messiah status.

 

Well, that’s the “caring / sharing” crowd for you.  They talk a good game about Hope ‘n’ Change (and peace and love), and all that.  But when push comes to shove, they do most of the shoving.  Because, while Team Obama members publicly speak of moving beyond “politics as usual,” what they say in private is quite another matter.

 

To their legions of paid and volunteer supporters, they issue these instructions:  1)  “Get in the face” of anyone who disagrees with us.  2)  “Hit back, twice as hard.”  3)  “When in a knife fight, bring a gun.” 

 

Decorum, indeed.

 

 

Copyright © 2009  Michael F. Murray       All rights reserved.

 

 

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