Bloody Mary

I don't know how Mary Matalin got into the wardrobe department from 101 Dalmatians, but let's just say her performance defending the Vice President on Meet the Press isn't going to do wonders for her boss' approval ratings. Arianna has the blow-by-blow description.

I watched it too, and was particularly piqued by this exchange between Cruella and NBC News' David Gregory:

GREGORY: If you thought he did everything right... why did you do a big national interview this week?

MATALIN: Because you went on a jihad, David. For four days you went on a Jihad.

GREGORY: And that's an unfortunate use of that word, by the way. This is not what that was.

MATALIN: Oh, OK. All right. How -- were you saving up for that line?

Cruella crosses the line, calls asking questions a jihad, and when Gregory calls her on it, she asks "were you saving up for that line?" What? The line in question was a direct repsonse to something she said. How could David Gregory have possibly been waiting to pounce with "that's an unfortunate use of that word?" Did he somehow know telekinetically that Cruella would drop the j-bomb?

This is all part of the conservative tactic to paint the "liberal media" as all about scoring political or rhetorical points. It's projection, of course, because that's what they do on an hourly basis. It's the tried and true "attack your opponent when you're the weakest" strategy. And that exchange is emblematic of it.