Our nation... particularly in the early years of my life time... had an overly prudish attitude and value system. Now that we have overthrown than rigidity, we haven't come to terms yet on what is socially acceptable and what is rowdy humor suitable only for closely affiliated adults who understand it to be humor. Sophomoric humor, but acceptable rowdy humor among friends.
I thought O'Donnell at 10 P.M. was reasonably well-behaved. Apparently when he moved to 8 P.M. when Olbermann exited, it was "take off the gloves" time. I could tell from conversations in these forums that many people had observed O'Donnell in other settings and knew was capable of "throwing sharp elbows" as they said about Rahm Emannual when he was at the White House.
My personal choice would be that commentators and players in the political arena would all back off and make more attempt at "adult behavior"... whatever that means. (We can't seem to agree on that that means.)
I recent contacted my congressman with some thoughts on how he would vote if he had any desire to try and please me. Last night I received a reply, which loosely translated said: "I run the show here, and as a voter it is damn well time you understand that I am smarter than your are, and you opinion is of no interest to me." No, if you agreed with the political position of my congressman, you would read his reply and say to me: "I don't understand what you find offensive about his reply."
Did O'Donnell cross over some line with the piece with Beck and Congressman Ryan edited to create a somewhat hot-and-saucy relationship? By my personal standards, yes. Based on most campaign advertising today, based on what Rush routinely throws into his programs, based on comments I get in Personal Mails with other people populating this forum, O'Donnell is just "running with the crowd" as my Mama used to say.
