Today In "Both Sides Do It" - UPDATE

But It's My Only Line!

I suspect that Wingnut Central Command has finally popped for a course in Lean Manufacturing to speed up the throughput on their bullshit production line, because damn if it didn't take less than 72 hours for their latest Both Sider Bigot Camouflage to make it from the factory floor into the grabby hands and rotting hearts of the Conservative message distribution system.

Consider first, this by Brother Charles Pierce on the 30th.  Every Liberal in creation knew exactly where the Right would go once Steve Scalise's inconvenient footsie with klansmen hove back into view and Cholly had the good sense write down the mile markers and grade of the road ahead (with emphasis added):

...

This is the plain history that modern conservatism not only fails to acknowledge, but actively tries to erase from the common memory. You see this every time we are reminded that Robert Byrd once belonged to the KKK, or every time a conservative pundit reminds us how vital Republican votes were to the passage of landmark civil-rights legislation. But, as I said, the echoes are as clear as the faint, residual clamor of the Big Bang, if you know where to look for them. Which brings us to the curious case of Congressman Steve Scalise, the third-ranking member of the Republican leadership in the House Of Representatives, and a man with his ass caught in a considerable crack at the moment because he made the mistake of acknowledging this history in public, following the trail blazed by ol' Strom Thurmond, one too many times.

...

Now let us stop stop under the bridge where America's White Supremacist newsrag of record, The National Review and check to see which specific species of false equivalence they'll haul out of the coal bin bin this time to claim the sacred title of The Real Victim Here (accompanied as by all the usual doo-dah that anyway Teh Libruls are so much worse (with emphasis added)): 

...

But I myself have, within recent memory, accepted an invitation to give a talk (I believe it was to be about the national debt) to a perfectly respectable-sounding organization (Something Somethings for Liberty, I think) that turned out to be something else: Birchers, in this case, not David Duke nut clusters. I withdrew when I discovered what they were about. But it is not difficult to imagine that if I had a politician’s packed speaking schedule rather than my own comparatively leisurely one, I might have shown up and given my entitlement-reform talk to a bunch of people who think that Dwight Eisenhower was a Soviet agent.

On the other hand, it is more difficult to explain away all those photos of noted Democratic and progressive leaders in the company of Louis Farrakhan. Is there anybody who doesn’t know what he is about?

Tah Dah!

You know, when it comes to the National Review and its King Rat, Rich Lowry, I am absolutely sure of three things.

First, Mr. Lowry will never stop presiding over his wingnut slop trough as long as there is a nickle to be made telling racists and assorted other ideological bottom feeders their favorite fairy tales.

Second, Mr. Lowry will be welcomed onto "Meet the Press" repeatedly during 2015, just as he was during 2014. 

And 2013. 

And 2012. 

And so on.  

And, third, I am quite positive that Chuck Wagon will dare not risk losing Mr. Lowry's patronage by rudely asking him about all the drivel and rageporn he cranks out to feed the bigot party's insatiable appetite for flattery and validation.

Just as was true in 2014,  

And 2013.  

And 2012.  

And so on.

And speaking of unholy abominations which should never have seen the light of day, over at the The National Review's inbred, halfwit offspring, the Washington Examiner * (Motto:  Potty reading for the World Net Daily crowd), this (with emphasis added):

Scalise, GOP leaders must accept that they are held to a higher standard

BY TIMOTHY P. CARNEY

DECEMBER 31, 2014

...

These questions are important in assessing Scalise’s judgment and character. But Scalise wants to keep his leadership job, and so the most important question isn’t whether Scalise “deserves” the whip spot. The question is will he hurt or help the party?

This isn’t really a difficult question. Scalise is a Republican. He’s fairly conservative. He will not get the benefit of the doubt. Democrats already love painting every conservative position as racist, from opposing Obamacare to wanting to rein in Fannie Mae. When the party’s No. 3 leader in the House has famous David Duke ties, it will be that much easier.

Is that fair? Maybe. Maybe not.

Do Democrats get away with far worse? Of course they do. President Obama’s longtime intimate relationship with the hate-filled Rev. Jeremiah Wright tells us more about his tolerance for odious views than Scalise’s one speech tells us about him.

Democrats were fine with KKK alumnus Robert Byrd as a senior member of their caucus...

UPDATE:

And, of course, over on America's Fake News Leader, infamous liar, Weekly Standard hack, Iraq war architect and official biographer for Vice President Richard Cheney, Stephen F. Hayes, shows how to catapult that propaganda (h/t karoli at Crooks and Liars) (emphasis mine):

HAYES: There's a pretty clear media double standard here. I mean, you know, President Obama was listening to Rev. Wright for years. He spoke at an event for Rashid Khalidi and was involved with some pretty unsavory characters and those questions, a lot of people thought those questions were sort of off limits and shouldn't be discussed.

After 10 years of blogging all I know about 2015 is that the purveyors of Both Siderism will continue to he feted as magi on America teevee, and those of us who know better and know how to explain facts and history simply and clearly will continue to be driven further and further from the public square.  

* When Anschutz started the Examiner in its daily newspaper format, he envisioned creating a conservative competitor to The Washington Post. According to Politico, "When it came to the editorial page, Anschutz’s instructions were explicit — he 'wanted nothing but conservative columns and conservative op-ed writers,' said one former employee." The Examiner's conservative writers include Byron York (National Review), Michael Barone (American Enterprise Institute, Fox News Channel), and David Freddoso (National Review, author of The Case Against Barack Obama).