Pearl-Clutching as Political Theater

I've been meaning to post something about Rep. Pete Stark and his germane and, from my point of view, quite restrained remarks about the Preznitsy, S-CHIP, and frat boys who like to blow up frogs. Barbara O'Brien has done it better than I could.

A thought on this whole syndrome: So many in the blogosphere wonder why the media so faithfully parrot the faux everything coming out of the right while blowing off the real issues and the real stories. Part of it, of course, is that they're completely out of touch with the rest of the country. They'll publish poll results, but those results have no meaning to them -- totally outside their frame of reference, which is whatever comes out of the corridors of power is news. The "corridors of power" in their minds are still firmly Republican, so nothing commonsensical makes any sense to them. I suspect that's what's behind a lot of what the Democratic leadership is doing, too -- they're still locked in 2004.

They're all playing to each other.

As for Pete Stark -- we need another couple hundred like him.

Update:

Steve Benen at TPM has the right take on the right-wing hysteria over Stark's comments:

In other words, by throwing a fit, Republicans end up looking weak and hysterical. Indeed, it reinforces the least flattering GOP caricature of all -- these guys can't govern, but they can fall onto a fainting couch like nobody's business.

For years, Republicans worked to create the opposite reputation. They're tough. This is the macho "daddy party." They don't care about "political correctness" and wussies who cry over words that rub people the wrong way. This is a crowd that calls it like they see it, and doesn't look bad or apologize.

And yet, they've now spent the better part of a year trembling over mild rebukes from liberals. If Democrats were smart, they'd look at this as an opportunity to rebrand the GOP as pathetic cry-babies who can barely go a week without throwing a hissy fit over one manufactured outrage or another.

Unfortunately, the Democrats don't seem to be that smart. After all, as Atrios reminds us periodically, these are all Very Serious People, and so their manufactured vapors must be Serious, too.