Learning the wrong lessons from the past

I like the Captain, but he makes a large mistake in this post about Harry Reid and his efforts as the Dems leader in the Senate to shut down business over ANWR drilling. He says that Reid won't succeed because of the past failure of Newt Gingrich. "If Reid thinks he can win long-term gains by shutting down the Senate and blocking a bunch of executive nominations, he should remember Newt Gingrich and think again."

Some of you may recall that pundits made the same mistake when talking about Bill Clinton's efforts to cover up all of his corruption. They pointed out how the failure to immediately come clean by GOP presidents was used by the media to pound them relentlessly. Apparently, this was supposed to establish a "truth" applicable to presidents of either party. Yeah, right.

The Captain needs to remember, the news media does not treat the GOP and the Dems the same way. If a dispute between the parties results in some kind of government shutdown or slowdown, it is ALWAYS the fault of the GOP. Always. And cover-ups work fine for Democrats. Just not for Republicans.