Howard Kurtz has some big breaking news today: Lanny Davis, the former Clinton strategist, and Michael Steele, the former RNC Chairman, are upset about partisanship, and have decided to open up a new lobbying firm to combat the vicious negativity in Washington. (Viewers are encouraged to watch the video of Kurtz “interviewing” the two men, which includes Kurtz exclaiming, “You're both very attractive guys!”) The best part of Kurtz’s piece was this quote from Davis:
“I get more heat and more vitriol from my side than from conservative Republicans,” says Davis. In Democratic politics these days, he says, “you’re not allowed to deviate from a purist, absolutist position. It disturbs me that people who are supposed to be tolerant of dissent are so venomous.”
Indeed. Why are people so intolerant of dissent? I am ashamed to admit it, but sometimes I am guilty of what Davis is lamenting. Case in point: I take the opinion that working for dictators is a bad thing. Lanny Davis dissents from this controversial belief; he likes working for dictators. And, alas, I am not tolerant of his dissent. I even wrote several blog posts mocking Davis for it. But fear not: in Davis's and Steele's Washington, these brave dissidents will no longer be mocked.