Let's begin with the obvious.
Every law breaker who has threatened a Member of Congress ought to be arrested, prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned. There is no place in a free country for the politics of violence or intimidation.
The fanatics of both the far, far left and the far, far right have bedeviled American politics for many generations. MSM would be well advised not to give them publicity, and the usual rule for public figures and especially public officials is to never publicize threats as the publicity only engenders more threats.
Now to the not-so-obvious-to-the-Manhattan-Beltway media elite.
The attention being paid to the cranks and the nuts serves a political purpose of the mere far left, however, so it will continue. This is part of the effort to delegitimize and marginalize the exploding anti-growth-of-government movement. This deeply-felt concern over the viral expansion of the public sector is what has driven the Tea Party Movement, and it is also what will power the pummeling Democrats will receive at the polls in the fall.
In the blink of an eye, just as the federal government was swallowing whole the American health care system, it burped and then tossed down the student loan business. This follows the digestion of most of the American car business and the $800 billion "stimulus" that wasn't. Jabba-the-Fed is feeding.
Americans are stunned by the rapacity of the Democrats. The vast, vast majority of the objectors are mainstream and often previously apolitical Americans. Many are long time conservative activists. A handful of nuts have infiltrated their numbers, and the usual media suspects choose to focus on the crazies and not the millions. Many of these MSMers fretting over the rise of the fanatics use the term "Tea Baggers," which is itself an assault on civil discourse. Or they sneer at rallies which require actual commitment of time and resources, or at hand-made signs that suggest a familiarity with the Federalist Papers. They find red-white-and-blue clothing amusing. Then they turn to cluck at how standards of debate have declined in the House. Very amusing.
And just fine. This is the age in which extraordinary levels of media sophistication on the part of media consumers have stripped the MSM of influence. Old media trees are falling in old media forests, and no one hears a sound. The highly paid anchors are being mocked by those viewers who even bother to tune in. The big names seem wholly unaware of the joke. They are all Dan Rathers now, except that Dan Rather may, just possibly, get it.
MSM is reduced to the status once reserved for professional wrestling. The networks are producing "exhibitions," and the results are preordained. People watch. Some few poor souls believe. Most just grin at the pseudo-sophistication.
Meanwhile the politics of 2010 are coalescing into a hugely significant clash of ideologies and MSM is covering the phone calls from a dozen deranged mumblers. What is being heard most clearly by everyone except the MSM is the demand that the hard left power elites in Congress be tossed out, that Nancy Pelosi be ignominiously retired --the first Speaker ever to hit single digits in approval ratings?-- and that Harry Reid be sent packing.
These are the considered opinions of millions of Americans, and their disgust with the serial Beltway power grabs is not in the least discredited by the tiny number of crazies who call in threats.
MSM is missing the real story. Again. Long live the Colberts who don't know they are Colberts.
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