I Just Want To Remind Everyone About That Whole Civility Thing

You remember that, right? Where people who get heard, especially politicians, should stop using martial terminology because it might lead to some congresswoman's getting shot in the head, you remember that, right?

Right?

Update, August 2, 2011: Only people on the right seem to notice this. It's not like the MSM is going to point out its own faults and start covering this angle, as they'd be, to use a martial metaphor, massacring their own people:

So flashforward to this week. Tom Friedman — who knows a bit about Hezbollah — calls the tea partiers the “Hezbollah faction” of the GOP bent on taking the country on a “suicide mission.” All over the place, conservative Republicans are “hostage takers” and “terrorists,” “terrorists” and “traitors.” They want to “end life as we know it on this planet,” says Nancy Pelosi. They are betraying the Founders, too. Chris Matthews all but signs up for the “Make an Ass of Yourself” contest at the State Fair. Joe Nocera writes today that “the Tea Party Republicans can put aside their suicide vests.” Lord knows what Krugman and Olbermann have said.

Then last night, on the very day Gabby Giffords heroically returns to cast her first vote since that tragic attack seven months ago, the vice president of the United States calls the Republican party a bunch of terrorists.

No one cares. I hate the “if this were Bush” game so we’re in luck. Instead imagine if this was Dick Cheney calling the Progressive Caucus (or whatever they’re called) a “bunch of terrorists” on the day Giffords returned to the Congress. Would the mainstream media notice or care? Would Meet the Press debate whether this raises “troubling questions” about the White House’s sensitivity? Would Andrea Mitchell find some way to blame Sarah Palin for Dick Cheney’s viciousness? Would Keith Olbermann explode like a mouse subjected to the Ramone’s music in Rock and Roll High School? Something inside me hidden away shouts, “Hell yes they would!”

Update #2, August 3, 2011: I could almost give the LA Times credit for publishing this, even if it is only on their blog:
Vice president's reference to opponents as 'terrorists' deserves condemnation
The author is too clever by half, though, spending 2/3 of the post attacking former Vice President Cheney and then saying the equivalent of "Haha, fooled you, it was really Biden who said this!" Of course, most people will have stopped reading it by the time they get to that punchline, having gotten the wrong message.

Maybe the author isn't too clever by half, but actually planned it that way?

Update #3, August 3, 2011: Here's an O'Reilly clip showing plenty "civil" liberals calling Tea Partiers "terrorists" or worse.