When a political editor declares that U.S. Senator Jim Bunning (R-Ky) makes "even former Vice President Dick Cheney seem warm and fuzzy," you know that the mainstream media are reaching for the long knives. Associate editor of The Hill A.B. Stoddard wrote in yesterday's "Bunning’s gift to Dems:"
Bunning’s blowup was indeed a gift to bewildered Democrats on more than one level. It portrayed Republicans as obstructionists, showed Republicans dissing the unemployed, gave the GOP the face of a mean old white guy that made even former Vice President Dick Cheney seem warm and fuzzy, illustrated how hamstrung Democrats are in trying to pass legislation within the confines of Senate rules, made fellow home-state senator and former friend Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) squirm and distracted from the plans Democrats have to pass healthcare reform with the reconciliation procedure, as well as from Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) stepping down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee amid ethical troubles. Let’s call that a six-fer.
Just in case readers missed the point, Stoddard described Bunning's effort to get the Senate to abide by its own rule as a "temper tantrum." His "hot-pink face" and considerable "grumbling" reminded Stoddard that his "mental stability has been questioned as far back as 2004."
The mainstream media's shrieks and howls over Bunning's modest effort to bring a modicum of sanity to Washington spending places their own stability in question. If they're not careful, Bunning Derangement Syndrome may be included in the next revision of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
