OPINION:
Poor Vice President Joe Biden. You know you’ve really stepped in it as a liberal when even the Boston Globe calls you out (“Obama campaign: No apology for Biden’s comments,” Web, Sunday). Once again it has become clear that besides a dramatic dissimilarity in the role and scope of government, the biggest difference between liberal and conservative politicians lies in their capacity to feel shame.
Republicans are willing to go only so far in the pursuit of power, then embarrassment takes over. With Democrats, power always trumps shame. Sure, now and then you’ll get a nutty GOP congressman or senator, but his colleagues generally will be quick to rebuke and disassociate. Not the Democrats. They push their chips to the center of the table. It’s all aboard the crazy train. When the media almost never admonishes the left’s outlandishness, it’s easy to see why they get even more ridiculous.
How else can one explain Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s repeated comments on the Senate floor that “some guy” told him that Mitt Romney hadn’t paid any taxes in 10 years? Way to let that go unchallenged, media. I guess Mr. Reid has a job waiting for him after his Senate career is over. Fact-checking like that makes him a shoo-in at the New York Times.
The latest Biden incident demonstrates that even when there is a modicum of media disapprobation, the left still doesn’t feel compelled to back off. Stephanie Cutter, President Obama’s deputy campaign manager, said just recently — and unapologetically — that Mr. Biden’s remarks were “simply a distraction from the larger point he was trying to make.” Sure, and Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent statement, “The Zionist regime is a cancerous tumor,” diverted attention from his primary point that the Jews are a really swell people.
CHUCK DIETRICK
Presto, Pa.
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