There’s simply nothing in the political realm more entertaining than the tried-and-true double-standard. Remember when you were a kid and you got slammed with the “I know you are, but what am I?” Yes, politicians are like 12 year-olds that never grow up. There is, of course, the parental idiom, “Do as I say, not as I do,” that also seems àpropos in the world of political double-standards.
It’s been nearly 18 months since Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and 18 others were shot by a madman at an event in Giffords’ district. Democrats in Washington were quick to point fingers at gun-toting Republicans; when the facts came out that the shooter was a mentally ill person more closely in line with Democrat Party politics, they quickly changed their attack toward the “tenor” in our politics.
After the Giffords shooting we were, for lack of a better term, assaulted with charges that Sarah Palin’s use of the terms “target” or the depiction of crosshairs in an ad were somehow related to the actions of disturbed person. Democrats flooded the airways insisting that our political speech, the Tea Party and right-wing radio personalities had created an atmosphere where such acts were likely; it was simply pathetic.
“There are those who claim political rhetoric is to blame for the despicable act of this deranged, apparently apolitical criminal. And they claim political debate has somehow gotten more heated just recently,” Palin said in response. “But when was it less heated? Back in those calm days when political figures literally settled their differences with dueling pistols?”
Even the president said that we needed to bring down the political tone in Washington.
“If, as has been discussed in recent days, their deaths help usher in more civility in our public discourse,” Mr. Obama said, “let us remember that it is not because a simple lack of civility caused this tragedy — it did not — but rather because only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to our challenges as a nation, in a way that would make them proud.”
This is just how it works with the Liberals. In the words of one famous lefty, who happens to be Mayor of Chicago now, “never let a good crisis go to waste.”
Just to the left of Mayor Emanuel, you can find the president’s Senior Campaign Political Advisor David Axelrod. Raised in the same school of progressive attack-dog methodology, Axelrod this week demonstrated that he can dish up the violent rhetoric with the best of them.
On the same day the Obama campaign revealed the first in a series of political ads devoid of political attacks, Axelrod labeled several Romney backers as “contract killers.”
In a conference call with reporters Monday, Axelrod tried to put a positive spin on new campaign ads focusing on Obama’s accomplishments rather than reverting to political attacks, but assuring that it wouldn’t preclude the campaign from reacting when it sees fit.
“We’re also going to be prepared, and I want to be clear, to respond to the attacks that we expect to continue from — not just from the Romney campaign but from the Karl (Rove) and the Koch Brothers contract killers over there in SuperPAC land, who are going to continue to pound away on behalf of Governor Romney,” Axelrod said.
While the Obama Administration originally fought vigorously against political advocacy groups known as SuperPACs, famously castigating Supreme Court Justices in his State of the Union speech in 2010, he has made a miraculous turn-about, not only embracing the concept, but backing Priorities USA Action his own SuperPAC co-founded by two former staffers.
Axelrod and Obama’s SuperPAC has made a $25 million dollar ad buy for the month of May which began running Monday with an ad entitled, “Go,” which laid out the president’s record, from the auto bailout to killing Osama bin Laden.
Don’t blame Obama and his campaign staff for being disingenuous or flat-out dishonest; that would simply be hateful, unfair and unbalanced. Take in the full aroma of the Washington crud we’ve become accustomed to and realize that Obama and his political cronies are no better the rest of them; simply another gang of political sewer-rats infesting our society.
The Liberal double-standards: just another reason people find cockroaches more appealing than left-wing politicians.