I've often taken conservatives to task for their papal claims of infallability. In the GOP Schiavo memo case, as in so many others too numerous to recount here, the Republicans and their amen corner got it wrong and refused to own up and apologize.
If liberals are going to cast stones, however, we better get our own glass houses in order. The last 10 days have a offered us a good place to start: Jesse Jackson and Jane Fonda. The sooner progressives of all stripes disown their words and deeds, the sooner Democrats can begin their journey back to majority status.
Democrats should view Jesse Jackson's role in the Schiavo affair as concluding any public association with the party. With his embrace of the dangerous anti-abortion zealot Randall Terry, Jackson's journey from "Hymie Town" to the political wilderness is complete. To use some Jackson-speak, "where cameras persist, he must exist." Just not as a spokesman for the Democratic party.
Jane Fonda, too, should be consigned to the wilderness. Her 60 Minutes interview about her new tell-all book expresses regret, but not much more, for betraying American troops during the Vietnam War. Her visits to a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft battery and show trial interrogation of U.S. POW's just can't be written off to bad judgement or a reckless youth (see Bush, George W. on the latter). While Fonda is essentially irrelevant to today's Democratic politics, conservatives are still able to conjure her up as a symbol. Just ask the Swift Boat Vets.
Their activism notwithstanding, Jesse and Jane represent a net substraction from the popularity and prospects of the Democratic Party. Those to the left of center take pride in holding ourselves to a higher standard than our foes on the right. In the cases of Jane Fonda and Jesse Jackson, it's high time we actually did it.