Via the Free Beacon, imagine how far over the line you have to go in your zeal to bash Trump’s cabinet on “Morning Joe,” of all places, for even liberals to say, “Too far, too far.”

But then this is a personal feud, not a political one.

Brzezinski was speaking about Pompeo’s interview on cable news rival “Fox & Friends,” where the secretary of State reiterated that while the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was a “tragic incident” that America doesn’t approve of, the Saudis are still “an important ally” of the United States.

“I understand that Donald Trump doesn’t care … But why doesn’t Mike Pompeo care right now?” Brzezinski asked during an interview with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). “Are the pathetic deflections that we just heard when he appeared on ‘Fox & Friends,’ is that a patriot speaking, or a wannabe dictator’s butt boy? I’m dead serious. I’m asking, are these the words of a patriot?”

The “butt boy” remark brought together a jolly bipartisan coalition of people sincerely offended by it, people who simply want the left to play by its own exacting rules of public discourse, and people who want to dunk on Scar-zinski for being so shrill in their criticism of Trump 24/7/365. I’m not sure if Don Jr’s in the first group but he’s safely in the second and third:

Trump’s ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell was disgusted:

One thing, though. Brzezinski’s explanation for her choice of words seems … sort of plausible:

Totally agree with you -SUPER BAD choice of words .. I should have said “water boy”… like for football teams or something like that.. apologize to @SenatorDurbin too! SO SORRY! https://t.co/zIqsGdK3Tk

— Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) December 12, 2018

“Water boy” would have worked well in context. Did she reach for that phrase and her mind drifted towards “butt boy” instead, for whatever reason? (Maybe it got jumbled up with the term “butt-kisser”?) I can believe that she misspoke, but I think even critics who allow that possibility would ask why she misspoke as she did. Why the instinct to reach for a term related to gay men when grasping for a way to denigrate Pompeo? There are a million other ways to belittle a man’s masculinity and/or to suggest that he’s submissive to a more dominant male. Mika should get in the habit of calling her male enemies “cucks.” It’ll be all the rage on the left soon anyway, now that Pelosi’s inching closer to using that term on Trump.

Anyway, looks like Brzezinski will never host the Oscars. And if she ends up winning the Heisman, you know what the headline will be.