Where is the Debate the "Coarsest"?

Carol Platt Liebau | September 13, 2009 3:08 PM

So President Obama is deploring the "coarsening" of the national debate. So are many in the MSM -- Bob Schieffer indulged in similar hand-wringing at the end of todays' "Face the Nation."

Well, it took a special prosecutor investigating a Democratic president to convince the Dems that just maybe, Republicans had been right all along about the downside of unaccountable independent counsels. Maybe getting some pushback from the right will persuade those who gleefully unleashed the left-wing nutroots -- from the 9/11 truthers like Van Jones to the "Bushitler" types and Teddy Kennedy, who actually said that the Iraq war was "made up in Texas" (and stood by the remark) -- that there is some merit to civilized discourse.

We can only hope. But for now, it seems to me that the left complaining about "coarse" dialogue is a little like Bernie Madoff complaining about getting short-changed by a cabbie. Calling for President Bush "dead or alive" and holding placards showing a gun pressed against the then-President's temple -- I dunno, but that strikes me as slightly more extreme than the sign from yesterday's rally deplored this morning by Schieffer, which read, "Bury Health Reform With Ted Kennedy."

And although Joe Wilson's calling out "You lie!" at the joint session was inappropriate and rude, did he say anything different to his political adversary than the President said to his?

Can anyone remember President Bush threatening to "call out" his domestic opposition simply because they disagreed with him (or even distorted his views)? For Pete's sake -- President Bush got chided by liberals for essentially calling out the terrorists who killed Americans on 9/11.

Talk about a double standard.