On Wednesday morning, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) had a testy exchange with Today show host Savannah Guthrie, accusing her of editorializing his foreign policy positions and not letting him speak for himself. And to his defense shortly after came conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.
Why go there? Limbaugh asked of Pauls decision to appear on NBC. She showed open disrespect, she had no interest in the substance of what he was saying and tried to prevent him from announcing or saying or contributing any substance.
While Limbaugh said Guthrie treats everyone else as though they are her buds and friends, she treated Paul as an oddball, practically an alien. He said Paul has nothing to gain by doing interviews like this one.
If Rand Paul is not going to let the EstablishMedia pull their usual BS, then I'm all for it. It remains to be seen if he'll do this for the long haul, or give in to the inevitable criticism of his "bullying tactics".
It's nothing new that for whatever reason, the Media Branch of the Ruling Class always favors the Ds over the Rs. This has been true going all the way back to Nixon or even further. Oh, during the primary season we'll see it fawning over a Juan McClown or a Romney - but once the nominations are set it's "ALL IN" for whomever the D nominee is.
So the issue isn't that the EstablishMedia does that - it's instead why do the nominees let them get away with it? We've seen little glimmers of hope from time to time - Newt Gingrich confronting a presstitute during a debate in '12. Reagan's famous "I paid for this microphone."
But the gop response has not been consistent or sustained.