It would be easy to read something dark into Mr. Reid’s characterization, and the yawn with which it has been greeted. In fact, what we have here is really the logical extension of the liberal assumption that they have a monopoly on brain power. In such a world, anyone who dissents, almost by definition, has to be stupid or evil or both…

Right now the entire Beltway—including the West Wing—seems obsessed with finding out what went wrong with the administration’s sales pitch. No one appears to think the problem might be substance. Or that the vague answers and vitriolic rhetoric we get from Democrats such as Mr. Reid convey a sense that the plans they favor will not hold up under public scrutiny.

In fairness to the senator, perhaps history will one day vindicate his “evil monger” statement as a prophetic Gipper moment. If so, the legions of white-haired grandpas and grandmas now descending on our nation’s town halls will be exposed to be as irredeemably evil as, say, Iran or the USSR. When asked if the senator has any second thoughts about calling American citizens evil, a spokesman emailed me to say that Mr. Reid’s only regret is the “hate-filled rhetoric and signage” being used “to disrupt civil dialogue.”