THE INDECENCY TO COME, AFTER A DECENT INTERVAL

I'm somewhat surprised by the right-wing media's relative restraint in response to news that President Obama greeted returning war dead at Dover Air Force Base -- the story's being ignored or downplayed by the shrillest of the president's critics, and there's even some right-wing praise: Peter Hegseth at National Review Online calls it "a classy move," while Rick Moran (brother of ABC's Terry Moran) said, "the emotion that animated his face during this solemn, heart rending ceremony showed that he understands his responsibilities."

But that's not giving the rank amd file what they want. Here are the Freepers:

How dare he desecrate it with his unworthy presence.

This is just a photo-op to show him "struggling mightily' with his "grave decisions" about sending our troops "into harm's way".

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Why do I not believe he will feel any emotions for the fallen heroes, only for himself and what it will mean for him?


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... His narcissism is his guide.

I can't help thinking that the main reason Murdoch and Malkin and the rest are refraining from talk like this right now is that they don't want to be accused of insulting the troops themselves. A few right-wing bloggers aren't holding back though -- Abdul at Hyscience calls the visit a "carefully choreographed, cynical, ploy using our fallen troops as a campaign-like photo-op to make look like he actually gives a damned about our troops," and a couple of commenters quoted favorably by Gateway Pundit made similar remarks ("It is also thoroughly abhorrent to me that the current commander-in-chief of the armed forces of The United States of America is attempting to project an understanding of the honor and gravity involved in what is taking place before him").

When and how will this go mainstream? Oh, give it a few days. The message may come first from the more clownish righties (Coulter, Beck, Limbaugh, Dennis Miller), the ones who don't even pretend to have gravitas. Or maybe it'll get assigned to the likes of Ralph Peters or Ollie North (or one of the Cheneys). It's also possible -- since even some of the right-wing praise is being coupled with messages to the effect of now that you see the gravity of the situation, Mr. President, you'd better not screw up your new Afghanistan plan -- that the righties are waiting for that plan to be announced, at which point they'll promptly declare Obama a cowardly America-hater and his Dover visit a hypoocritical farce (because, of course, no one can sincerely mourn war dead who doesn't want to send as many troops as humanly possible anywhere John McCain and Joe Lieberman want them sent).

For now, though, the relative quiet is gratifying.

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UPDATE: Not a word about Dover on Limbaugh's show today? Yeah, the word has definitely gone out that they should hold their fire for now.

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UPDATE, FRIDAY: I said a Cheney might be the one to take up this line of attack (or be the hit person designated by Wingnut Central -- I'm never quite sure how these things actually work), and, well, that's what happened: it's Liz. Steve Benen has the details.