Juvenilia

David, I strongly disagree with your analysis.

“What he said was obviously stupid and tasteless, and he exercised poor judgment,” Mr. Axelrod told The Washington Post. “I think he’d be the first to acknowledge that. I strongy disagree with his analysis. But I’ve known him for decades. He’s a decent person and a good journalist. I’m sure that no one regrets this more than he does.”

No, Mr. Axelrod, he's a dick (though, one benefit of this incident is that we now know that the pejorative "dick" is fit to print in the New York Times).

Halperin's a dick, not because he shouldn't be allowed to insult the president, as Jonathan Chait complains, but because he's a hack and an apologist for Republicans. He's a dick because, in the face of a reality that exposes Republicans as the extortionists and economic saboteurs they are, he called the president "a dick" because the president called his friends on it.

No, Halperin shouldn't have been suspended for using juvenile language on "Morning Joe." He shouldn't be suspended for not showing enough deference to the president. He should be suspended for demanding the president show more deference to Republicans. Or maybe to the WH press corps. Which, in Halperin's case, is pretty much the same thing.