Last week, commenting on the adulation President Obama enjoyed from the media on his latest European tour, the blogger Anchoress said some in the media would suckle at his breast “if only he’d lactate.”

That comment came to mind when viewing an MSNBC segment regarding a recent statement by Rush Limbaugh.  The topic of discussion was Limbaugh’s comment, “If al Qaeda wants to demolish the America we know and love, they better hurry, because Obama is beating them to it."

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Two MSNBC anchors, Tamron Hall and David Shuster, joined by liberal guest Bill Press, triple teamed Republican strategist Alex Conant, shouting him down for daring to suggest that the network had not only failed to meet Rush Limbaugh’s challenge to go an entire month without mentioning his name, but that their coverage of Limbaugh’s comments bordered on obsession.

In the interview Hall became defensive in her response to Conant’s comments.  She claimed her network was just doing their job.  “Oh, you know – okay, that's ridiculous, absolutely. You know, I don't know if you've ever, ever watched Keith Olbermann, who just obliterated Rush Limbaugh on this topic…We have a right to cover people who are speaking out. This has nothing to do with this network. You tell me now if it is right…Is it right to compare the President of the United States to Al Qaeda? Do not try to call out this network for doing our job.”

I just want to make sure I have this right – an MSNBC anchor is asking if it is “right” to compare the President to Al Qaeda?  I couldn’t help but wonder how different MSNBC’s coverage would be if they applied this “Rush standard” to all their reporting.

Hall continued in the interview, “…we offer it up as a part of conversation because there are people who would use this, perhaps, against the President and against the United States. To say the President of the United States is damaging us or destroying this country like Al Qaeda wanted to.”

Maybe someone should ask Hall whether it was “right” to compare the President to Hitler as Keith Olbermann (the man she said “obliterated” Rush on this topic) has done so many times.  Was it okay when Keith Olbermann said, “Mr. Bush, you are accomplishing in part what Osama Bin Laden and others seek--a fearful American populace, easily manipulated, and willing to throw away any measure of restraint, any loyalty to our own ideals and freedoms, for the comforting illusion of safety.”

Olbermann said President Bush was accomplishing what Bin Laden was trying to do to America?  That sounds pretty close to what Rush Limbaugh said.  In fact, it is almost indistinguishable.

Kyle Drennen at Newsbusters.org noted that “apparently Hall forgot that her colleague Keith Olbermann, whom she touted earlier, had claimed that ‘Fox News is worse than Al Qaeda’ in a 2007 interview with Playboy magazine. More recently, last month Olbermann exclaimed that former Vice President Dick Cheney was ‘as insane as any terrorist.’ Neither Hall nor any members of Democratic Party ever apologized for such vitriolic rants.”  Yet Hall was asking a Republican strategist to defend Limbaugh’s comment.

Shuster later jumped into the mix saying “if Bill Press said some of the outrageous things about say George W. Bush, or any Republican, that Rush Limbaugh has been saying about Barack Obama, Alex, the Republican Party would be all over him, Fox would be talking about Bill Press nonstop, I promise you.” Continued...