Everyone’s going to be in a tizzy about this today.
I got this from Talking Points Memo, the resolutely Democrat-supporting U.S. blog. And already TPM’s making it clear that the congressman in the video, the Democrat, is the bad guy, because he didn’t just stand there and take his mockery when a couple of kids in Brooks Brothers suits shoved a camera into his face and started interrogating him.
I’m not buying. I don’t know the first thing about this congressman and it’s entirely possible he’s a nasty piece of work. But so what. The kid with the insightful questions (“Do you fully support the Obama agenda?”) didn’t begin to identify himself properly to the congressman. When asked he had no answer. Even today, posting his cheaply earned martyrdom on the web for the world to see, he won’t identify himself or his cause.
If the kid had done this on an airplane in flight, it might be easier to parse the right and wrong here. But it makes no difference that he did this on a street. Nor would it matter if Bob Etheridge were a Republican. If some snot-nosed little ass comes bounding up to a U.S. Congressman in these addled times and starts firing off questions, and refuses to identify himself either before or the grilling begins or when asked, that congressman has my personal permission to break the kid’s nose without ado.