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How quickly they forget the instances when Bush was booed by the liberal side of the aisle when addressing the Congress in that same "hallowed" hall. Let's also recall an interview in December 2004 on Meet the Press in which the moderator, Tim Russert, asked Democrat Senator Harry Reid, "When the president talked about Yucca Mountain and moving the nation's nuclear waste there, you were very, very, very strong in your words. You said, "President Bush is a liar. He betrayed Nevada and he betrayed the country. Is that rhetoric appropriate?"
Senator Reid's response was, "I don't know if that rhetoric is appropriate. That's how I feel, and that's how I felt." The Senate Majority Leader went on to say," People may not like what I said, but I said it, and I don't back off one bit." In another interview, just as the president was beginning a five-day good will European tour in May of 2005, Reid referred to Bush as a loser. How's that for protocol? That remark violated the restraint that the opposition party customarily exercises when a president is abroad, but it was an example of the bitter acrimony that was regularly being spewed by those who are now pretending to be mortified by one comment from one congressman, who, (until last week) was unknown to the rest of the country. Even during the last months of the Bush presidency, Nancy Pelosi, in a CNN interview last year said, "Bush has been a total failure in everything, from the economy, to the war, to energy policy."...
...Rep. Wilson violated protocol with his outburst during the president's speech, but the reaction by the Democrats, in view of their incendiary style of politics, is so profoundly hypocritical, that it's pathetic. As an example of their feigned outrage, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's webpage has a header that reads: "Hold the GOP accountable; stand against Rep. Joe Wilson's unacceptable outburst. Calling the President of the United States a liar in front of the nation is a new low even for House Republicans and it deserves the strongest response we can give." Okay, let's recap: If the Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House appear on national television and call the president a liar, a loser, and a total failure in front of the nation and the world, even when he's representing our country on foreign soil, it's acceptable. However, if an obscure lawmaker from South Carolina does it, he should be destroyed. It appears that Democrats have a bifurcated view of political rhetoric; only they should be able to use it.
