IOKIYAR

IOKIYAR, a common abbreviation in progressive circles: It's OK if you're a Republican. If a Dem and a Repo do the same thing, the Dem will be slammed for it and the Repo will get a free pass:

• Dixie Chicks got slammed for criticizing Bush (though they didn't say anything rude or untrue). So is anyone slamming Ted Nugent for criticizing Obama (and being rude and untrue in the process)? Silly question.
• Talking Points Memo asks, "If an underwear bomb means we're not safe under Obama, does a shoe bomb mean Bush didn't really keep us safe after 9/11?" (And along those lines, one editor I know says, "We take off our shoes because Richard What's-'is-name carried explosives in his shoe. Do we now take off our underwear? This is all generals fighting the last war.")
• Peggy Noonan says that Charles Schumer calling Scott Brown—accurately—a "far-right teabagger" is "obnoxious intrusion" and "name calling". Yet far-right teabaggers calling Obama a Marxist, Nazi, facist, or Antichrist is... what, exactly?
• No More Mister Nice Blog asks us, "Can you imagine if, in the runup to 2006 or 2008, most of the major Democratic presidential contenders had attended a convention featuring a Condi Rice pinata, and maybe a Dick Cheney face shoot or a George W. Bush pretzel-eating contest? And can you further imagine Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and Joe Biden trying to outdo one another on missing-WMD jokes and Katrina-failure jokes, all while attendees got to knock down a guy dressed in drag as Lynne Cheney, sumo wrestler?"

We're on a road to nowhere

I don't often agree with Nate Silver's opinions, but he has perfectly captured exactly where the Democrats are today: behind in the casino by more than they can afford, and with their ATM card cancelled.