Sons of Nixon

Drudge's headline says "New Enemies List" regarding the White House campaign against Rush Limbaugh.

Funny, but I thought the exact same thing this morning, but in another context. Is it me, or is the Obama White House exceptionally prickly when it comes to criticism? The media has been swooning over them for so long that when any doubts are aired by the Fourth Estate, they can't help but reply. Witness Press Secretary Robert Gibbs the other week answering criticism from CNBC's Rick Santelli, and then again this week from another CNBCer Jim Cramer. My first thought was "don't you have anything better to do with your time than whine about all this ... say fixing banks?"

Now the calculated Rush campaign is revealed as having been hatched months ago, even before election day. Taken together, these people seem to have a Nixonian paranoia that somewhere, sometime, someone is saying something bad about them. And that these people should be duly noted and not allowed to make their assertions unanswered.

I picture Gibbs and Emmanuel sitting in the WH, with an LBJ-style bank of tv sets, clicking furiously between cable stations, their thumbs numb from hitting the volume and mute buttons. "Aha! Santelli just criticized us! Make a note. We'll blast him tomorrow." "Aha! Cramer just said nasty things! What is it with CNBC! They're in cahoots with evil bankers! Make a note. We'll get them tomorrow too."

Pretty soon we'll start comparing Gibbs to Ron Zeigler, Emmanuel to HR Haldeman, and Axelrod to Ehrlichman ... somewhere, an enemies list is being drawn up.