Self-reflection, self-criticism and self-correction are foreign concepts to Democrat leaders. They continue to throw out every possible excuse for why they lost the election — except the primary reason that many Americans just didn’t buy their rhetoric or prescription of continuing failed policies. The latest blame-game play for Democrats is to self-identify as the victims of a masterful Russian hacking plot designed to swing the election to Donald Trump. While there is no solid evidence to support this claim, the Leftmedia fakery machine quickly rushed to bolster the narrative with reports that unnamed U.S. intelligence sources have concluded that the Russians intervened and helped Trump’s campaign.

What is so disingenuous about this current charge is that those responsible for creating the climate for Russia’s aggression are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Remember, it was Obama who chided Mitt Romney in 2012 for his “1980s” foreign policy concerns regarding the threat of Russia’s growing geopolitical power. And there was Secretary of State Clinton’s infamous “reset” with Russia, providing it with greater opportunity to continue exploiting the administration’s feckless foreign policy. Perhaps the greatest hypocrisy of all is Clinton deciding to break the law in using an unsecured personal server that undoubtedly was hacked, probably by the Russians. In other words, it is Democrat leaders, not Republicans or Trump, who are responsible for creating the mess in which they now find themselves.

But, again, the concerns over the integrity of the U.S. electoral system seem a rather hypocritical charge for the Democrats to make given their history. In the early 1990s, it was discovered through the release of Soviet-era documents that Sen. Ted Kennedy had secretly asked the Russians to interfere on behalf of the Democrat Party in the 1984 elections. And now after losing, Democrats are wringing their hands over the integrity of the U.S. electoral system? While they clearly are seeking to delegitimize Trump’s presidency and even the whole American electoral process, they are playing right into Putin’s hands.

Being frustrated over losing is understandable. Seeking to destroy the legitimacy of your opponent’s victory is vindictive.

On a final note, here’s the New York Times: “Top Republicans must reject the ridiculous notion that a national election can be ‘rigged.’” That was in an Oct. 18 editorial.

Now? “[President-elect] Trump should be leading the call for a thorough investigation, since it would be the only way to remove this darkening cloud from his presidency. Failing to resolve the questions about Russia would feed suspicion among millions of Americans that a dominant theme of his candidacy turned out to be true: The election was indeed rigged.” (Hat tip: James Taranto.)