Charles Krauthammer Scolds Margaret Carlson for Saying Tea Party 'Strapped Explosives to the Capitol'

July 29th, 2011 6:33 PM

Bloomberg's Margaret Carlson on Friday accused the Tea Party of wanting "to burn the place down" and having figuratively "strapped explosives to the Capitol" during debt ceiling negotiations.

Sitting beside her on PBS's "Inside Washington" was Charles Krauthammer who smartly replied, "I thought post-Tucson we weren’t supposed to accuse our political opponents of being terrorists" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MARGARET CARLSON, BLOOMBERG NEWS: I have to downgrade Charles here. You initially said why don’t Republicans, you know, take the victory. And it’s because there’s a nihilist caucus which is, “Listen, we want to burn the place down." I mean, they’re not, they’ve strapped explosives to the Capitol and they think they are immune from it. The Tea Party caucus wants this crisis, and do we want to do this again six months from now? This whole two-step process is another thing which is they like the drama. They want to do it again.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: I thought that post-Tucson we weren’t supposed to accuse our political opponents of being terrorists.

CARLSON: Nihilists.

KRAUTHMAMMER: Strapping a bomb is a terrorist.

No, actually Charles, that rule was never intended for liberals.

Only conservatives are expected to show their political opponents a modicum of respect.

Sadly, liberals can say whatever they want about their enemies with total impunity.