Circular Firing Squad

So it seems that Ed Schultz spent most of his 3-hour long show today beating up on Howard Dean for some remarks he made concerning the GOP being a white, Christian party. Or should I say, Ed jumped on the right-wing bandwagon that's beating up Howard Dean.

Keep in mind, Ed is a guy who spent hours upon hours criticising MoveOn.org when they decided to air ads criticising a Democratic senator who voted for the heinous Bankruptcy Bill. Complaining about how the Democrats always "eat their own" and form a "circular firing squad." And how "you don't see the Republicans doing that, do you?" Well, now Ed has allowed his frustration to guide himself into Circular Firing Squad territory.

I've listened to his show ever since KLSD went Air America (Ed is actually carried by the Jones Radio Network), and he's usually a pretty good guy. He knows how to keep a show moving, though his format of unscreened callers often does him more harm than good. But now that people are starting to call to parrot back his own rhetoric about keeping intra-party disagreements private, now Ed is saying, "When I see something wrong, I have to speak out", and "I'm not beholden to any party." Ed, Ed, Ed, what are you doing?

While we're on the subject, I'm disappointed in the prominent Democrats, too, who jumped on the Dean-bashing bandwagon. Take a page from the Republicans playbook, for gods' sake; when asked if you agree with Dean, say, "As far as Chairman Dean goes, we'll have to agree to disagree on the specifics. But I do agree wholeheartedly with his larger point, which is that unless you represent the interests of wealth, or the interests of fundamentalism, the Republican Party simply does not come through for you. It's unfortunate that message gets lost in the larger storm, but that is a stone fact."

And that's what Ed should have said as well. I'd encourage everyone who reads this blog (both of you) to write to Ed and ask him what he was thinking.