Leftists are always lecturing Republicans and conservatives on the importance of civility and bipartisanship yet revealing, whether winner or losing, that they are the ones who need lessons in manners and collegiality.

If you aren’t convinced of the left’s nonpareil arrogance and nastiness from observing their behavior toward President Bush and Vice President Cheney for the past eight years, then contrast the behavior of Mr. Bush’s staff leaving office and that of Mr. Clinton’s, who literally trashed the White House like juvenile delinquents.

Fast-forwarding to this week, did you see Obama supporters booing President Bush at the inauguration, singing, “Na, na, na, na, hey, hey, hey, goodbye”? Pure class.

The Washington Times reported that these same Obama supporters mocked Mr. Cheney “with derisive laughter when he appeared on huge TV screens by the Capitol grounds, rolling down a ramp in a wheelchair after suffering a back injury moving out of his Naval Observatory home. ‘Good riddance!’ one man yelled.”

Nor was it just rude mobs at the parade. “Hardball” host Chris Matthews wasn’t content to bask in his euphoria over Obama’s assumption of office. Like many of his colleagues, he needed to kick Bush as he was going out the door. “There’ll be no more bullying of the world, no more acting like one of the bad guys on occasion. We’re going to try again to be the good guy of the world and to get along with our fellow democracies. It is a dramatic change that’s to come.” Dramatic, indeed, Chris.

Then we saw the surviving Dean of Network Broadcasters, Tom Brokaw, tackily, nay, sadistically remarking, “It’s unfortunate for Vice President Cheney to have had this accident, obviously, because there will be those who don’t like him who will be writing tomorrow that he had a Dr. Strangelove appearance as he appeared today in his wheelchair.” Well, Tom, the only writing about this I’ve seen is in reference to your snide comment.

In case you think this was uncharacteristic of Brokaw’s general attitude, then perhaps you didn’t hear about his other comparison. NewsBusters reported that he likened the mood of the inauguration crowd to what he’d observed at the fall of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia. “It reminds me of the Velvet Revolution,” he said. While he “charitably” conceded that Bush’s administration was not a communist regime that had been overthrown, he remarked, “An unpopular president is leaving, and people have been waiting for this moment. And there’s that same sense of joyfulness and possibility, even though, as in Czechoslovakia, they had enormous problems, and we do, as well.” (And these clowns accuse my brother of being over-the-top.)

If you have a particular masochistic streak and want to overdose on the liberal media’s bias, run a quick LexisNexis search and read the comments from “journalists” accompanying the inauguration of President George W. Bush or Ronald Reagan. Ann Coulter’s recent column contained a few choice examples.

One might think the new post-partisan president himself would have broken from this trend and exuded the singular kind of collegiality for which he is celebrated. But in the midst of his lofty speech, he couldn’t pass up a few digs at the exiting administration, either: “The time has come to set aside childish things. … Our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions, that time has surely passed.”

Obama also couldn’t resist a jab at the knuckle-dragging science-averse, apparently for failing to swallow the left’s uncompromising faith-based opinion, which has come under increasing scientific challenge (31,000-plus scientists and counting), that human activities are leading to apocalyptic global warming. “We will restore science to its rightful place,” he said. I assume “its rightful place” is in service to leftist propaganda.

Unfortunately, this superior, blame-assigning attitude was not just inaugural rhetoric; it has made its way onto the new White House agenda Web site. Under “Katrina,” it boasts: “President Obama will keep the broken promises made by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. He and Vice President Biden will take steps to ensure that the federal government will never again allow such catastrophic failures in emergency planning and response to occur.” They also take a shot at the Bush administration on military contracts. They will “develop a strategy for determining when contracting makes sense, rather than continually handing off governmental jobs to well-connected companies.”

For further proof of how bipartisanship and tolerance will work under Democratic rule, just read the news, hot off the presses, of Connecticut Democrats demanding an apology from Sen. Joe Lieberman for criticizing and failing to support Obama.

As events of the past week have shown, liberals are every bit as bad at winning as they are at losing.

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