I know this is a cliched exercise, but bear with me. Imagine if a heavily armed man had stormed into a Democratic Party headquarters armed with a rifle and began threatening people and ordering pictures of Hillary Clinton and Howard Dean taken off the walls and threatening mayhem if a Democratic president vetoed a piece of legislation. Do you think that story would be written without the words “Republican” or “conservative” showing up in them at all? Hardly.
But switch it around, with a man invading a Republican headquarters and threatening people with a rifle and ordering photos of President Bush taken off the walls, and, well, the word “Democrat” or “liberal” just can’t be found in the story (I don’t count the reference to Democrats in Congress). He’s just “a man” who did this this strange thing. No speculation about motive or ideology.
