There is a widely held point of view on the “left” blogs based on the theory that (a) the correct political tactic is to lambaste and insult the President and the Democratic leadership in the most virulent language while proposing detailed advice on tactics, language and personnel changes, and (b) the President and the Democratic leadership are cowardly, corrupt, corporatist, immoral, scuzzbuckets. There’s a third plank, which is that whenever anyone in or allied to the administration or the Democratic Leadership takes exception to (a) above, that just proves (b) above. As a related stream, people who attacked Obama as a sexist, homophobic, Reagan-worshipping, corrupt, empty-suit during the Democratic Presidential primaries seem to be able to be repeatedly disappointed by his actions as President.
One startling aspect of these guardians of left wing purity is that they never seem to notice that the language that they use could be taken out of RedState or the works of Frank Luntz – and probably is – often through the MSM transmitters. So, for example:
The original measure, drafted by chairman Christopher Dodd of the Senate Banking Committee, is surprisingly tough on Wall Street — a fact that almost everyone in town chalks up to Dodd’s desperation to shake the bad publicity he incurred by accepting a sweetheart mortgage from the notorious lender Countrywide.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31234647/obamas_big_sellout/print
And
Senator Chris Dodd (D, Irish Mansion CT) is having a time of it with this sweetheart Countrywide loans thing. First off, the Senate Ethics investigation somehow managed to avoid going after him for his activities, which meant that Dodd thought that he could start repairing the damage to his fundraising reputation (H/T: Instapundit):
http://www.redstate.com/moe_lane/2009/10/24/see-dodd-spin-spin-dodd-spin/
The beauty of Taibbi’s quote is that he manages to combine a Republican smear against a Democrat (there is no reason to believe Dodd got any serious benefit from the Countrywide deal) with the MSM favorite theme that nobody does anything for principle (except Republicans and Blue Dogs), only for the sleaziest type of political expediency. Of course, we know that the only type of “liberal” that the MSM likes to promote is one who will, like George Stephanopoulus, explain that his former colleagues fucked up and it’s pretty much hopeless anyway – so we can forecast bright careers ahead for the more adept practitioners of doom.
