McCaingate - It's Not Both Sides

If there is a lesson from McCaingate, it is that the “tone” problem in Washington is owned by Republicans. It has nothing to do with Democrats. Elected Republicans are either tearing each other apart or tearing their hair out trying manage a party whose leader plays to the cheap seats with childish antics and a twisted notion that character is a sign of weakness. Still most of those elected Republicans, some of whom are decent try to mitigate their responsibility by falsely claiming “both sides need to dial down the rhetoric.” When pressed to state what Democrats have to apologize for, they would struggle to dig up Kathy Griffin’s crude photoshoot from a year ago, or Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” remark. Both women apologized by the way. While Steve Schmidt deserves credit for going after his party for its complicity in the debasing of our politics, it would be so much more clear if he said the words “it’s not both sides.” That would really be nice.