double standard for being acceptably nasty and mean

[dajoki]

ST. Petersburg Times
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/10/01/Columns/Democrats_need__to_gr.shtml

Democrats need to grow a backbone

By BILL MAXWELL
Published October 1, 2006

With midterm elections just around the corner, dirt is flying between Republicans and Democrats. Which party will survive with fewer wounds? Do we have a double standard, one for Republicans and one for Democrats, for being acceptably nasty and mean?

When Howard Dean took over as the Democratic national chairman, I hoped that other Democrats would study the straightness of his backbone and grow one just like it. Dean came into the job showing his utter contempt for right-wing Republicans.

I was convinced that he was the man for the job, that if Democrats were to regain any semblance of respectability and real authority, they would have to face reality and start playing the GOP's brand of smash-mouth personal politics.

Well, after six years of George W. Bush in the White House, his lunatic war in Iraq and a GOP-led, do-nothing Congress, I am even more convinced that the Democrats had better start fighting back - and with brass knuckles, a la Bill Clinton when he recently outfoxed Chris Wallace.

But first let us get back to Dean. As far as I am concerned, he has told the truth about the GOP and Bush. If he has erred, it has been on the side of harshness, not dishonesty or hypocrisy. Here is sampling of Dean's GOP truths:...http://www.sptimes.com/2006/10/01/Columns/Democrats_need__to_gr.shtml