And the Democrats have allowed it. We still have not learned to protect our own.
The woman is still being hit from all sides and as yet, there is no organized and effective response to the lies, the hypocrisy, or to fight back. Had the first Republican efforts at belittling her been met with equal force, and authentic outrage, I might add, this thing might have been over in a few days, as we would have given as good as we got and exposed their hypocrisy so that the media could not mention Nancy without mentioning the Republicans. Instead the congressional Dems still afraid to be too controversial, sat back quietly and allowed the Republican lies to take root. Sure, from time to time there was a positive editorial about her trip, or one pundit said something in support, or pointed out the hypocrisy, but generally speaking the Repug message was the one carrying the day. Days.
She was left to fend for herself. Clearly, the congressional Dems still do not understand what they are up against or how the Repugs work to diminish and destroy them.
Things have not changed much from the days of Willie Horton. The congressional Democrats still do not appear to recognize the evil with which they are dealing. They are much too complacent and it's high time that the Democratic leadership in congress had a professional quick response communications team to further the interests of the party and it's leaders.
Someone has to stop these people. Krugman explained the problem in his column today:
But there’s another political lesson I don’t think has sunk in: the power of the Little Lie — the small accusation invented out of thin air, followed by another, and another, and another. Little Lies aren’t meant to have staying power. Instead, they create a sort of background hum, a sense that the person facing all these accusations must have done something wrong.
He goes on:
Now there’s Ms. Pelosi’s fact-finding trip to Syria, which Dick Cheney denounced as "bad behavior" — unlike the visit to Syria by three Republican congressmen a few days earlier, or Newt Gingrich’s trip to China when he was speaker.
Ms. Pelosi has responded coolly, dismissing the administration’s reaction as a "tantrum." But it’s more than that: the hysterical reaction to her trip is part of a political strategy, aided and abetted by news organizations that give little lies their time in the sun.
Fox News, which is a partisan operation in all but name, plays a crucial role in the Little Lie strategy — which is why there is growing pressure on Democratic politicians not to do anything, like participating in Fox-hosted debates, that helps Fox impersonate a legitimate news organization.
But Fox has had plenty of help. Even Time’s Joe Klein, a media insider if anyone is, wrote of the Pelosi trip that "the media coverage of this on CNN and elsewhere has been abysmal." For example, CNN ran a segment about Ms. Pelosi’s trip titled "Talking to Terrorists."
The G.O.P.’s reversion to the Little Lie technique is a symptom of political weakness, of a party reduced to trivial smears because it has nothing else to offer. But the technique will remain effective — and the U.S. political scene will remain ugly — as long as many people in the news media keep playing along.