"Bad For The Democrats"

I take my swipes at the MSM, but don't really dwell on the Beltway pundits. It's now at the point where it's hard to tell the difference. This, from Ana Marie Cox at Swampland at Time, via Andrew Sullivan:

So, I gather you all (Glenn Greenwald, most notably) picked up on something Time ME Rick Stengel said on The Chris Matthew Show Sunday about the possibility that Congress may pull Rove and Miers in to testify about the USA scandal: "I am so uninterested in the Democrats wanting Karl Rove because it is so bad for them."

It's a sentiment that's even harder to parse that the usual chat show banter. He's uninterested because going after Karl is bad for the Democrats? Two problems: Since when did the Democrats doing something bad for themselves prove to be uninteresting? A second, bigger problem: Why is going after Karl bad for Democrats? The panel on Sunday seemed to be taking the line that going after Karl would somehow make the Ds look petty and vengeful; I tend to think it makes them look like they are doing what they were elected to do*: provide oversight of a "comically [and at times criminally] mendacious" administration.

Stengel replies:

As a citizen, I think it's unfortunate and perhaps short-sighted for Democrats to be perceived as focusing on the past rather than the future. If people see the Democrats as obsessively concerned with settling scores, that's not good for the Democrats or the country.

Here, in one brief quote, is the distillation of all the arrogance and smugness that we outside the Beltway have been assailing in recent years. First, "as a citizen," Stengel hasn't been paying attention. Support for these investigations is overwhelming (outside Washington, at least), and corruption and the war were the two big reasons that the Democrats won control of Congress (as well as any number of state legislatures).

If the Democrats are going to be "perceived as focusing on the past," it's because people like Stengel are shaping the perceptions. If this is what the major news outlets are coming up with, it's no wonder you can't believe anything you read.

Sullivan agrees. And Atrios has neat little chart.