The decision by CNN to air Rep. Michele Bachmann's personal response to President Obama's State of the Union Speech has created that rarest of political animals ... bipartisanship:
Originally, Bachmann's response was going to be available for viewing only on the Internet. But CNN has announced that her speech will be shown in full in addition to broadcasting the speech from GOP Rep. Paul Ryan, who was picked for the official response by the Republican leadership.
GOP aides are unhappy with the decision, because it risks making the opposition look conflicted -- as if the two are trying to upstage one another -- muddling GOP efforts to offer a unified response. [...]
CNN's decision to air Bachmann's speech, interestingly, is angering liberals and Republicans alike. Steve Benen notes this morning that Bachmann's Tea Party brew could end up making Ryan's speech look moderate and reasonable in comparison. Both Benen and Atrios also point out that it could create a fundamental imbalance -- two Republicans responding to one speech from Obama -- and that there's no way CNN would allow a liberal Dem to offer a response from the left, as Bachmann is doing from the hard right.
So everyone agrees, if for different reasons, that CNN's decision is irresponsible, unfair, and journalistically speaking, ludicrous -- but did you expect anything else from today's traditional media? So let's take those lemons and make some lemonade.
The Republican side is right to be unhappy that Bachmann is getting a national platform tonight, but not because it might muddle their official response by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) -- quite the opposite, in fact. Because the last thing the GOP establishment wants is the lunatic fringe that controls their party's agenda to be front and center on the national stage.
And tonight, courtesy of Michele Bachmann -- the leader of the paranoid, let's slit our wrists, arm the people, conspiracies are everywhere crowd -- it will be.
