So now people who think that maybe we should live within our means are terrorists and extremists?

I think that they’re trying this gambit now because they’ve finally figured out that “racist” doesn’t work any more — the race card has become the joker.

Jonah Goldberg: To hell with you people:

…president Obama, our national-healer, gives a speech. It was a good speech. Indeed it was one of the first speeches in a long while that got anything like bipartisan support. Civility. New tone. No more martial metaphors. These were the takeaways.

So flashforward to this week. Tom Friedman — who knows a bit about Hezbollah — calls the tea partiers the “Hezbollah faction” of the GOP bent on taking the country on a “suicide mission.” All over the place, conservative Republicans are “hostage takers” and “terrorists,” “terrorists” and “traitors.” They want to “end life as we know it on this planet,” says Nancy Pelosi. They are betraying the Founders, too. Chris Matthews all but signs up for the “Make an Ass of Yourself” contest at the State Fair. Joe Nocera writes today that “the Tea Party Republicans can put aside their suicide vests.” Lord knows what Krugman and Olbermann have said.

Then last night, on the very day Gabby Giffords heroically returns to cast her first vote since that tragic attack seven months ago, the vice president of the United States calls the Republican party a bunch of terrorists.

No one cares. I hate the “if this were Bush” game so we’re in luck. Instead imagine if this was Dick Cheney calling the Progressive Caucus (or whatever they’re called) a “bunch of terrorists” on the day Giffords returned to the Congress. Would the mainstream media notice or care? Would Meet the Press debate whether this raises “troubling questions” about the White House’s sensitivity? Would Andrea Mitchell find some way to blame Sarah Palin for Dick Cheney’s viciousness? Would Keith Olbermann explode like a mouse subjected to the Ramone’s music in Rock and Roll High School? Something inside me hidden away shouts, “Hell yes they would!”

Also, America held hostage: 41% self identify as extremist fringe tea-bagging terrorists.

I don’t think this is going to end well for the statists.

[Update mid afternoon]

Jim Treacher: “‘Waaaaah! Stop being mean to me! You’re a terrorist!!!’ — The adults in the room.”

[Evening update]

More from Treacher: “So we’re terrorists for “holding the country hostage”? Okay, then: For what you’re doing to future generations, you are pedophiles. Own it.”

Somehow, I don’t think that the talking heads are going to pick up that meme any time soon.

[Bumped]

…but they really look like idiots now:

“The extraordinary outpouring of celebration, joy, and hope all over the world at this election is something I could never have imagined in my lifetime,” according to Professor Brinkley.”There’s a discipline to Obama that is so extraordinary,” he raved. And then he added: “I don’t think we’ve had a president since Lincoln who has the oratorical skills that Obama has. Obama has that quality that Lincoln had.”

Remnick, too, compared Obama’s rhetorical skills to Lincoln. The campaign also “shows him in a decision-making mold that is very encouraging.” Obama demonstrates a “receptivity to ideas outside the frame” and possesses a “worldview that allows for complexity.” He “assumes a maturity in the American public” and possesses “great audacity.” And not to believe Obama’s election will have “enormous effect” on the streets of Cairo, or Nairobi, or Jerusalem is “naive.” We were dealing, after all, with a tranformational president unlike any in our lifetime.

On and on it went, to the point that Remnick finally had to say, “We’ll climb out of the tank soon.” And while Rose’s guests inserted a qualifier here and a caveat there, reminding viewers Obama’s greatness as a chief executive still had to be proved, the infatuation with America’s 44th president is unmistakable.

Since then, the Obama presidency has suffered an enormous erosion in support. In this country, Democrats in 2010 experienced the worst electoral thrashing since the early part of the 20th century. In the Arab world, President Obama is less popular than his predecessor. Obama’s ineptness in the debt ceiling debate has infuriated his own party; so has his lack of leadership. Even Obama’s vaunted communications skills are being roundly criticized.

And then there was David Brooks’ admiration of his pants crease.

…walking one step closer to the Oval Office.

From Rand Paul: “I’d rather be a hobbit than a troll.”

John McCain can’t leave public life soon enough for me.

[Update early evening]

On the other hand, Chrissie Matthews has found a new tingle up his leg:

Chris Matthews’ infatuation with John McCain has returned. The day after the Republican senator bashed his own party, knocking “Hobbit” Tea Partiers, the Hardball anchor on Thursday lauded him as “great” and even suggested McCain as a MSNBC guest host: “…He can substitute for me some night with that kind of talk!”

Don’t expect him to actually vote for him, though.

“…the President’s ‘attempt to scare Social Security recipients is without legal foundation.'”