Pearl clutching 101

Pearl clutching 101

by digby

Courtesy of Colbert

I hate having to defend James Comey. I really hate it. I still think he's a sanctimonious showboater and his holier-than-thou attitude still rubs me the wrong way. I will never understand his actions in 2016. But watching the Villagers get on their high horses and condemn him for fighting Trump on his own terms is making me sick. Comey isn't the first one to call Trump out for being what he is. He's not "lowering the bar." He's not saying anything that millions of Americans don't scream at the TV every single day, including many people who work in newsrooms. It's just that the Republicans used to say it then they all stopped and became his toadies in public.

Here's a brief list of what they used to say about him from the New York Times' scathing editorial:

Republicans used to warn the nation about Mr. Trump openly, back when they thought they could still protect their party from him. Here’s a short sampling: “malignant clown,” “national disgrace,” “complete idiot,” “a sociopath, without a conscience or feelings of guilt, shame or remorse,”“graceless and divisive,” “predatory and reprehensible,” flawed “beyond mere moral shortcomings,” “unsound, uninformed, unhinged and unfit,” “a character and temperament unfit for the leader of the free world,” “A bigot. A misogynist. A fraud. A bully.” Some still say these sorts of things, albeit anonymously. Just last week, one of the president’s defenders in Congress told a conservative columnist, “It’s like Forrest Gump won the presidency, but an evil, really [expletive] stupid Forrest Gump.”

I'm no fan of Comey but I think he's perfectly justified is saying what we all can see with our own eyes.

This double standard is going to get that orange miscreant elected again. They hamstring the other side with demands of propriety and Trump rolls right over them.

.