Could somebody please explain the difference between people on the Right calling the eight GOP congressmen who voted for the Obama-Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade anti-global warming energy bill “cap and traitors” and the far lefties at moveon.org calling Gen. David Petraeus “General Betrayus”?

Rules for Radicals cuts both ways. It makes for a catchy phrase that you can hang a hat on.

RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)

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Sorry but that is the politics we are in. Kinda like Adams vs Jefferson a couple of centuries back.