John McCain is a Commie terrorist!

Frank Rich makes a compelling case:

John McCain epitomizes the unpatriotic opposition. On Wednesday night he could be seen sneering when Obama pointed out that most of the debt vilified by Republicans happened on the watch of a Republican president and Congress that never paid for “two wars, two tax cuts, and an expensive prescription drug program.”

Perhaps I’m missing some of the deep irony of Rich’s observation. Perhaps the description of McCain as unpatriotic is a profoundly subtle criticism of the casual way in which the Bush administration allegedly tarred its critics as unpatriotic.

But there’s no indication of that anywhere in Rich’s column. As I see it, this is simply evidence of the crude partisan double-standard applied by certain liberal pundits who often claim to be high-minded critics of dirty politics.