Democrats and Double Standards

National Review ^ | January 19, 2010

[Steelfish]

Democrats and Double Standards If Martha Coakley were a Republican, she would have been Quayled.

By Mona Charen

Oh, how different the world would look if Martha Coakley were a Republican! As it is, she gets the sort of gentle rebukes the press reserves for Democrats. Her campaign was too “lackadaisical,” we are told. She was “overconfident,” and too “buttoned down.”

Reading and watching the MSM, you wouldn’t know that Coakley is a walking minefield. There is now, and there has always been, a completely different set of rules for Republicans.

If a Republican candidate in such a high-profile contest put out campaign literature that misspelled the name of her state, it would be worth, let’s see, mentions on every Sunday gabfest and two, maybe three, jokes on the late-night shows. Dan Quayle’s misspelling is the stuff of legend. Coakley’s? Not so much.

When Coakley was challenged in an October debate about her lack of foreign-policy credentials, she parried: “I have a sister who lives overseas, and she’s been in England and now lives in the Middle East.” Hmm. Just a few months ago, Sarah Palin said something similar, and the smart set has not yet finished laughing. Palin didn’t say, “I can see Russia from my house!” But the Tina Fey parody has replaced the less amusing truth. Saturday Night Live can be brilliant. But if Palin’s comment was worthy of such mockery, wasn’t Coakley’s equally so? Just asking.

The woman who would like to sit in the U.S. Senate announced last week that there are no longer any terrorists in Afghanistan. Not since Joe Biden boasted (during the VP debate) that he had chased Hezbollah from Lebanon have we heard such a loony claim. Where are the titters?

[neverdem]

If Martha Coakley were a Republican, she would have been Quayled.

That's a pretty good subtitle, IMHO, yet the writers and enthusiasts of the state controlled media appear bewildered about their loss of subscribers.