Carville's Bush Comments No Comparison to Rush's 'Fail'

Amid the hubbub over Rush Limbaugh’s open desire for the president to fail, Fox News is claiming a media double-standard: Democratic strategist James Carville made a similar comment referencing Bush 43, and no one heard about it. But the two situations are far from analogous, writes Dave Cook in the Christian Science Monitor. Carville’s statement was made early on September 11, 2001—and he retracted it as soon as he heard about the attacks.

“Disregard everything we just said. This changes everything,” Carville said when word of the attacks reached a media breakfast where he was speaking. His comments—including “I hope he doesn’t succeed, but I am a partisan Democrat”—understandably got lost; there were bigger things to discuss that day. Besides, what Carville “said at the 2001 breakfast was far less strong and colorful than comments Limbaugh has been making,” Cook writes. (More Rush Limbaugh stories.)