"So many times it happens too fast. You trade your passion for glory. Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past. You must fight just to keep them alive." Eye of the Tiger, Survivor
August 12, 2015
By: Linda Case Gibbons
It all depends on who you are.
If you're Hillary, you get a pass no matter what you do, because you're Hillary.
If you're Barack Obama, Congress and the Supreme Court don't even try to reel you in.
The same goes for anyone on the left, the wacky governor of California and Sen. Bernie Sanders included. It's crazy!
Gov. Jerry Brown can ban the word "alien" from California's labor laws and still be mentioned as a possible presidential candidate.
And Sanders? He can be a Socialist, running for president and it's okay. No one mentions any of it as a problem.
The whole gaggle of them are treated like Terrible-Two-Year-Olds, and their "parents" -- the media and Congress -- look upon the spunky little tykes with the tired, resigned attitude of doting parents.
"What can you do?" they shrug and smile. Their answer is "Nothing."
Looking the other way, avoidance, attacking the other guy Alinsky-style, is a learned skill, and American politicians have learned it well over the past eight years.
But if you're Donald Trump, it's a totally different story. He's treated like a step-child.
The parents' resigned, affectionate tone disappears and a red line is drawn in the sand which, unlike Obama, they enforce with grim determination, the like of which we have never seen before.
The word has gone out, to friend and foe alike, on the left, on the right and especially to the GOP Establishment: "Get Trump."
And FOX News has responded to the rallying call.
You must understand, when it happens, it happens so gradually, you hardly notice. But when you lie down with dogs, the next thing you know, itch, itch, itch.
Politicians head off to Washington with stars in their eyes and full of good intentions, but before long, you guessed it, itch, itch, itch.
But it's not just politicians. Over time the people you rub shoulders with have a way of changing you, whoever you are, making you lose your way.
Even FOX News.
After years of mopping up after pseudo-journalists, FOX was vulnerable to fleas. On August 6, 2015 viewers saw it with their own eyes, on their own TV screens.
After years of battling the mainstream media that cherry-picks the news, the cable channel found itself using the same tactics it had criticized for years: Gotcha' questions, innuendo, favoring some, ridiculing others.
And their viewers were furious. They'd seen it before and didn't like it. It was an underhanded handling of the 2016 Republican candidates and they weren't going to let FOX get away with it.
Surprisingly the attacks came from the people who liked FOX most.
They had held FOX in high esteem. It was their go-to, unvarnished news source, one they could trust, and now that was no longer the case. After years of Obama-Media, they couldn't let this one go.
It's reported that FOX President Roger Ailes and Donald Trump buried the hatchet after the shameless attack on the candidate that night, but in the days that followed, it seems more like FOX buried the hatchet in Trump's campaign.
The nuancing of Trump on FOX continued.
It's not that we expect anything fair from Karl Rove or Dana Perino. These people still think they work for George W. Bush. But it's the anger from just about everyone else, especially on FOX, that is so interesting.
The Iran deal was never dissected, but Trump's immigration plan was, in detail, by FOX contributor Judge Napolitano, to see if it is "constitutional."
Politico's Rick Lowry was a FOX invited guest and he aired his view of Trump, whose style he described as "phenomenal incoherence."
And we all know why this is happening. When do you get the angriest? When you're wrong. When you didn't do something you should have.
And these folks didn't. All nine of the other Republican candidates on the stage that night. They never changed anything Obama did. They just talked
And it wasn't because they didn't have the chance. There were five governors and three senators who could have stemmed the tide of illegal immigration.
But they didn't.
Republicans have a majority in both Houses of Congress and could have broken the back of Obamacare.
But they didn't. They talked about it, but in the end, no action.
So FOX contributor George Will can ask, archly, tongue-in-cheek, "Do we want to give nuclear weapons to Donald Trump?" when our president has already given them to Iran.
FOX contributor Charles Krauthammer can speak dismissively of Donald John Trump as "entertaining," and not a serious candidate, when the American people say something far different in the polls.
And Roger Ailes can defend Megyn Kelly as doing a "professional" job as moderator on the FOX Republican debate, but viewers know differently.
The fact is that The Donald may use the wrong words sometimes, may pat himself on the back one too many times, but the people love him.
Candor is his middle name and it's very endearing. It brings tears to the eyes, in fact.
He's fearless. And we haven't seen that in a long time.
He'll answer questions from anyone, anytime, and doesn't rope reporters off to keep them away.
And he is saying what Americans are thinking, about everything, even Hillary's shenanigans. It is something no one in office, in the Washington Bubble, has done in a very long time.
So if you're wondering. That's why the GOP Establishment, including FOX, is hopping mad. And scared.
Hold the line, America.