A Double Standard

It turns out liberals are inclined to forgive fellow liberals, while being more likely to be hard on conservatives. I'll give you a moment to compose yourselves after that shocker.

This comes via Bruce Bartlett's latest article in which he takes Ann Coulter to task, not for calling John Edwards a faggot, but for creating an opening for Liberals to march through.

Sadly, this sort of smear technique is standard in the liberal playbook. All conservatives are held strictly accountable for every faux pas committed by any conservative, anywhere, any time. It doesn't matter how outrageously one has to take their words out of context, it doesn't matter how profusely they apologize for accidentally misspeaking, it is always part of an ominous pattern in the liberal imagination. Meanwhile, any liberal who does precisely the same thing is simply given a pass.

Hey remember when John Kerry called the troops idiots? Me neither. But I do remember Conservatives gleefully pretending he called them idiots.

Hey remember when Ward Churchill said some outrageous things and it proved that Liberalism was rotten to the core? Heard Rush bring up Ward Churchill yesterday come to think of it.

Bartlett also takes a moment to question the idea that Rush Limbaugh might be down on Hilary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi because of their gender. This is a bit of a straw man; Rush is down on them for being Liberals and everybody knows it. But he chooses to use gendered attacks on them all the time. It might be because he is misogynist himself and doesn't like strong woman, or it could be because he thinks his audience is misogynist and has to play to them. It doesn't that much either way, I suppose.