Memo to Rachel Maddow

posted at 3:18 pm on October 6, 2009 by Laura Curtis
[ Double Standards ]   

DATE: October 6, 2009

TO: Rachel Maddow

CC: All lefties screeching “Mom!  The GOP hit me back!”

FROM: Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, Jim McDermott, David Bonior, and Mike Thompson

RE: politicians going rogue overseas

Clearly you did not get the previous memos that partisan politics no longer stop at the water’s edge issued by Open Left and many left-leaning blogs during the Bush administration.  The President of the United States is no longer entitled to support from members of the opposing party in Congress in the international arena.  Consequently, your complaints about the “creepiness” of the intention of Jim DeMint to dispute global warming propaganda in Copenhagen and recent efforts by Mr. DeMint and others to inform that public that the government of Honduras currently has a legitimate ruler because Zelaya was legally removed from office make you look like an idiot.

Specifically, we would like to bring your attention to a few examples of members of the Democratic party to bring partisan American politics onto the international stage:

• Nancy’s trip to Syria where she relayed an untrue statement about Israel’s readiness to engage in peace talks and continued her attempts to establish what the Washington post described as a “shadow presidency.”
• Ted’s treasonous efforts to help the Soviet Union get the upper hand against President Reagan in disarmament talks.
• Jim, David, and Mike’s trip to Baghdad in 2002 (at Saddam Hussein’s expense!) to argue against the war.

Aside from people actually in office  – since some folks are agitated about former officeholders and prospective presidential candidates Palin and Huckabee criticizing President Obama on foreign soil, we would like to remind you that former Vice President Al Gore has done it, bizarrely criticizing the United States post-9/11 treatment of Muslims in America while giving a speech in, of all places, Saudi Arabia.  And of course, Jimmy Carter provides new examples all the time.

While it is certainly fair to say that “you did it first!” isn’t a good excuse for bad behavior, “he hit me back!” is an equally invalid complaint.

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