It is one thing for the government, the administration, to attack opponents, institutions, media. It is another to go out and try and delegitimize them and destroy them.

 

I thought it was sort of repulsive audacity on the part of the administration to go out and to declare Fox is not a real news organization, particularly when there might be big companies out there who might think twice about having an ad on Fox or other news media who might think twice about following a Fox story because it might incur the displeasure of the administration.

 

Similarly, to go after the Chamber of Commerce — you can argue against it, defend yourself on the arguments — but to try to induce defections as a way to destroy it is a new level. It's Chicago-level politics.

 

Look, there is nothing illegal about it. It is not unconstitutional. But it is outside the Democratic norms of our society, which is Madisonian.

 

Our idea is that you have — as a way to protect against tyranny in government — the growth, the interaction, and the clash of what Madison called "factions" but what we call "interests," special and otherwise. You argue, interact and you clash. But you don't undermine, delegitimize, and destroy.

 

That is the Madisonian way, and we are getting, instead, is the Chicago way.

?.It isn't a question of defending the Chamber. It is a question of being offended by a certain style of politics. And that's what I think is the problem here.

Here's a curious turn in the White House vs. Fox News fight.

On Monday, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow were among several people who attended an off-the-record briefing with Pres. Obama at the White House. Sources tell us other attendees at the two-and-a-half hour chat included Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post, Maureen Dowd of the New York Times, Gwen Ifill of PBS and Gloria Borger of CNN. Perhaps not surprisingly, no one from Fox News was in the room.

This fact quickly turned into ammunition for the folks at FOX. Last night on "Special Report," Bret Baier revealed the information pointing out that opinion hosts from one channel were being invited to a briefing with the Commander-in-Chief, all the while Fox was declared not a news organization.

 

Well, this was really amazing: Contessa Brewer, an anchorwoman for MSNBC, was introducing the Rev. Jesse Jackson. But she introduced him as: the Rev. Al Sharpton. According to the Associated Press, ?Jackson stared at the camera from a studio in Burbank, Calif., and said, ?I?m Rev. Jesse Jackson.?? Recovering, Brewer said, ?We all know who you are, Rev. Jackson. I?m so sorry.?

 

Fine, fine. We all slip up. An understandable mistake. But I ask you: What if that mistake had been made by a Fox News person? Can you imagine? Can you imagine? ?Fox News, the right-wing network, can?t even tell two black men apart — can?t even tell the two reverends apart. They?re all the same to them.? La Contessa is lucky she works for a network known as left-wing.

 

(By the way: Al Sharpton must have loved it, Jackson?s being introduced as Sharpton.)

 

You?ve perhaps heard about Contessa Brewer before. She?s the one who reported interestingly on the Second Amendment protest staged in Phoenix, outside the Convention Center, where President Obama was giving a speech. MSNBC showed a man — the middle of his body — packing heat. Brewer said, ?There are questions about whether this [the protest] has racial overtones. I mean, here you have a man of color in the presidency and white people showing up with guns.?

 

Unfortunately for La Contessa and MSNBC — you would think — the man being featured, Christopher Broughton, was black.

 

Oh, well. These are really weird times, in the media especially.