Baby Party Blues - And Their Enablers

It's a familiar pattern: the Republicans are on the absolute wrong side of an issue, wildly out of step with the American people. So to distract from that reality, they whine about someone saying something mean to them. I wonder if this does nothing but end up reinforcing in the public mind that Republicans are a bunch of babies who can't take words of any kind without heading for the fainting couch. Here's the problem, though: Democrats actually help along this crap.

His words will live on as part of the congressional record, but Rep. Pete Stark's comments about President Bush gaining "amusement" over deaths in Iraq have been condemned by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

In a statement released Friday evening, Pelosi called the comments of her fellow California Democrat "inappropriate."

"While members of Congress are passionate about their views, what Congressman Stark said during the debate was inappropriate and distracted from the seriousness of the subject at hand -- providing health care for American children," Pelosi said.

What's inappropriate is you having so much as a word to say about it. Rush Limbaugh makes a comment about "phony soldiers" and the entire Republican Party rallies around him, and he auctions off a letter signed by 41 Democrats for $2 million dollars. Pete Stark makes a bold statement in the midst of a heated debate, and Democrats have to denounce and distance. It's just horrendously bad politics. How about discussing how Republicans can't stop whining and crying and fainting about talk instead of action?