Podhoretz - liberal tantrums

Following a post by Jonah Goldberg http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/273444/hell-you-people-jonah-goldberg which was prmarily about the media double standard that allows the most over the top rhetoric on the left while chastising the right for its supposed lack of civility, John Podhoretz provides some perspective on just what the House Republicans did:

'As it happens, I too think a failure to raise the debt ceiling would have been wildly reckless. But for those who voted as they did, the most minimal elementary fairness should be extended: They told their constituents they wouldn’t. They ran for election in 2010 promising to do what they could to change the relationship of the body politic to the federal government, to reverse the spending mania in Washington, and to hold true to principles of limited government. They won. They were presented with bills they thought failed the test. They voted against those bills. In what conceivable universe is this entirely appropriate behavior by elected officials trying to fulfill their campaign promises tyrannous, terroristic, jihadist, or anything else? Opposing tax hikes is the act of a jihadist? Wanting larger cuts in government programs is terrorism? Exercising the right to assemble into a loose coalition to oppose such things is dictatorial?" http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/08/02/the-liberals-are-throwing-tantrums/

Both posts are worth reading.