Sour grapes

Political blogs and talk shows ridicule “the other side” with abandon. The left does it to the right, and vice versa, everyday. Sometimes the derision is done with humor, sometimes not. But whatever form it takes, a lot of digital ink or airtime is devoted to mocking the other side. Balanced reporting, analysis or commentary is routinely shunted aside for it. And to what end? Page visits and ratings, of course. Mockery sells, baby. It’s also a fun way to pander to your choir. It makes members feel oh so superior to their knuckleheaded opponents. And so, like crack addicts, they keep coming back for more.

This is a longwinded way of noting a snarky article about Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) by Talking Points Memo. Ryan, who is leading the GOP charge to shrink entitlement spending and privatize Medicare, was caught “sipping $350 wine with two like-minded conservative economists at the swanky Capitol Hill eatery Bistro Bis.” Later, they trio ordered another bottle. Total tab: $700. By happenstance, Rutgers professor Susan Feinberg and her husband were dining a few tables away. She later e-mailed TPM. "We were just stunned," she wrote. "I was an economist so I started doing the envelope calculations and quickly figured out that those two bottles of wine was more than two-income working family making minimum wage earned in a week." The horror. (Feinberg even took iPhone photos of the Ryan table surreptitiously. How creepy is that?)

So what is TPM suggesting? Congressman Ryan shouldn’t drink expensive wine during the recession? Should he sell his house, too, and move into a trailer park to show his fidelity to America’s economic recovery? You can read the lengthy piece yourself. Ryan is certainly no hero of mine. But this is just a drive-by shooting. TPM fans will love the artful mockery. Too bad our political discourse has just taken another two steps back – again.