Of course, Wehner (purposely?) misses Shirley’s whole point: The constant yammering about “tone” is a trap designed to prevent anyone from criticizing the establishment. If conservatives can’t strongly criticize the establishment, of course, they can’t warn the voters about how bad establishment policies are. In other words, he wasn’t actually saying that people should be rude — he was saying that we have to be willing to say things that the establishment doesn’t want to hear.

The Bushies, in response, pretend that Shirley was supporting rudeness for its own sake, which is nonsense.

“Mr. Wehner picks his fights oddly,” Shirley said when reached by LifeZette. “Apparently, he thinks the dirty tricks of the Bushes — just ask John McCain about the 2000 South Carolina primary — are fine. But conservatives are supposed to shut up and be second-class citizens to him and his brethren of neocons.”

Indeed, Wehner has a selective memory. He invokes Reagan and William F. Buckley — contending neither would be so rough and tumble in their critiques. Oh really?