Suddenly Stodgy: Bruni Brands Ted Cruz A 'Whippersnapper'

Wait a sec: aren't liberals supposed to be the edgy dudes who like to buck the established order?  The ones who glorify guys with the guts to "speak truth to power"? So what could possibly have turned these hipsters into a bunch of suddenly stodgy sourpusses reaching for their Miss Manners?  Looks like in-your-face is no longer in style when the upstart in question is—horrors!—a conservative!

Continuing his campaign for proper etiquette--and against Ted Cruz--Frank Bruni appeared on Morning Joe today.  The New York Times columnist recently wrote a cranky column calling Cruz an "an ornery, swaggering piece of work."  Bruni took things one stodgy step further, calling Cruz a "whippersnapper." Frank fulminated over Ted's temerity in actually voting against the august John Kerry.  View the video after the jump.

Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson joined the ranks of Bruni's protocol police, warning that senior senators "have ways of squashing whippersnappers."

Watch the unintentional comedy as liberals suddenly become the defenders of politesse and the old order.
 

FRANK BRUNI: I think his conservatism is genuine. This is not ginned up. What is odd you don't have to have the style he has. To be this 42-year-old whippersnapper, be one of three that votes against confirmation of John Kerry.

. . .

EUGENE ROBINSON: The way to really get power and influence in the Senate is not to come in and immediately get in the face of John McCain and senior senators like that, because they have ways of squashing whippersnappers.

JOE SCARBOROUGH: By the way: isn't that great, Gene?  We're calling a 42-year old a "whippernsnapper."