Republican Derangement Syndrome

By Peter Wilson

You'd think that at very least under the Obama-Pelosi-Reid clique we might have had a reprieve from Bush Derangement Syndrome.

Instead Palin Derangement Syndrome continues to addle liberal brains, the out-of-power GOP is pilloried as the Party of No, Sharon Angle was a dangerous extremist, and Republicans still want to starve children. These aren't on par with charges of war crimes and Bush Lied, Children Died, but obnoxious nevertheless.

Now that the GOP has regained a seat at the table of government, attacks on Republicans seem to be returning to Bush-era derangement.

A few recent examples:

--Joan Vennochi's Boston Globe column "Scrooged," is subtitled "Don't look for peace and good will for the unemployed." The Globe added a large illustration of Senator Brown as Ebeneezer Scrooge, sneering at a poor man and coddling a fat-cat Daddy Warbucks. Vennochi writes: "before [Senator Brown and his fellow Republicans] play Santa to the rich, they must play Scrooge to the jobless." Vennochi however goes on to completely undermine her accusation:

While expressing sympathy for the unemployed, Brown said he opposed extending benefits without an "offset.'' He wants to use federal funds already authorized by Congress, but not yet spent by federal agencies.

"Are we going to do it from the bank account, or are we going to put it on the credit card?'' he asked.

Sen. Brown is suggesting that his colleagues follow the Congress's pay-go rule, which although widely ignored, requires new spending to be funded by either tax increases or cuts in other programs. This deserves a half-page character assassination?

--Also in the Boston Globe, normally mild-mannered Scot Lehigh, who covers local Boston stories, accuses Sen. Mitch McConnell of "high-handed political behavior" calling him "as partisan -- and unyielding -- a Senate minority leader as we've seen in recent memory." ("GOP makes high handed threat.") High-handed? Unyielding? After the majority leaders and the President rammed ObamaCare and trillions of new spending through Congress?

--The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, not content with calling Republicans "extremists" has upped the ante in a recent fundraising letter, referring to "a Republican-led House full of Tea Partiers and ultra-extremists."

--Tom Friedman in high snark:

It is not that millions of Americans suddenly started worrying about the national debt. Seriously, do you know anyone who says: "I couldn't sleep last night. I was tossing and turning until dawn worrying that the national debt was now $14 trillion." Sorry, that only happens in contrived campaign ads.

Did Mr. Friedman miss the election we had last month? He clearly doesn't have a clue about what motivates the Tea Party. It is amazing that a man who gets paid to watch American politics can be so out of touch with the concerns of the electorate.

Democrats are not gracious in victory, but they get really vicious when they lose.