SELF-PITY: IT'S OK IF YOU'RE A REPUBLICAN

It wasn't a pleasant task looking for something of value in the steaming pile of ordure that is Maureen Dowd's latest I-hate-Hillary column. However, I did spot one sentence that points to an insight, even if the passage itself isn't actually insightful. It's this, about Hillary's recent displays of emotion:

But there was a whiff of Nixonian self-pity about her choking up.

"Nixonian"? That's not really accurate. Self-pity in politics isn't Nixonian -- it's Republican. Nixon personalized it, but Republicanism has, for most of my lifetime, been a matter of group self-pity.

Read Ann Coulter whining about liberal domination of everything in American life ("The liberal catechism includes a hatred of Christians, guns, the profit motive, and political speech.... Heresy on any of these subjects is, well, heresy"). Read Power Line on the current occupant of the Oval Office ("It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can't get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.") Listen to any talk radio host or Fox News bloviator railing against liberal domination of the media, even as he wins his time slot handily. Hear about America's "war against Christianity" -- a subject about which the best-known book is titled Persecution. And if you're into collectibles, pick up an old lapel button that says, "ANNOY THE MEDIA -- RE-ELECT PRESIDENT BUSH" (that was Poppy's slogan, but no Republican would have thought it unseemly for Junior to have distributed buttons saying the same thing).

This isn't just a Republican campaign tactic -- Republicans talk like this every day. And the political world doesn't think it's unseemly at all -- whereas if Democratic politicians try to rally voters by complaining about government policies that favor the rich and powerful, they're accused of engaging in "class warfare," even though they're speaking the truth. And if Hillary Clinton herself complains about being the target of a "vast right-wing conspiracy," she's accused of divisiveness if not clinical paranoia, even though there really was such a conspiracy.

When Hillary Clinton feels sorry for herself, it leads to banner headlines. When a Republican feels sorry for himself, it's just business as usual.