Senate Power Switch Again Reveals Media's Bias

When Newt Gingrich and the Republicans rode to victory in 1994 and took over the House and Senate for the first time in 40 years, Gingrich was portrayed as a grinch. He was hard right. He was intolerant. He wanted to starve the poor and throw the elderly into the streets. That is the way the press and Democrats (same thing) portrayed him.

Now comes the new Senate majority leader by fluke, Tom Daschle. How is the press treating him? Like a savior, that's how. The Washington Post did a puff piece that would embarrass a P.R. firm. Here's how it starts: "Tom Daschle has new shirts - nifty ones with wide, spread collars that come up a little higher on the neck than your standard-issue senatorial white shirts." It gets worse. When the Post wrote about Trent Lott's shirts, we learned that he ironed them after they came back from the cleaners. This was seen as a negative, along with his well-kept hair.

CNN did a lengthy video tribute to Daschle that could have been shown at a Democratic fund-raiser. That's how it will be for those wise and noble and caring Democrats until and unless the Republicans take back the Senate in the next election. Then it will be negative press as usual.