Does the 'Kinsley Rule' Apply to Journalists, Too?

Michael Kinsley, the former editor of Slate, once defined a gaffe as what happens when a politician inadvertently blurts out the truth. But what about when a card-carrying member of the MSM does the same thing?

David “advisor to presidents” Gergen is perhaps the most conventional of the conventional-wisdom purveyors in Washington. To paraphrase Mary McCarthy on Lillian Hellman, every word that comes out of his mouth is a cliche, and that includes “the,” “but,” and “and.” Almost nothing he says is ever original, insightful or thoughtful, although he delivers his empty phrases in a professorial honk that seems to convey authority. If you want to know what everybody else within the Beltway is thinking, Dave is your go-to guy.

So that’s why this clip from last night’s debate between Scott Brown and Martha Coakley, competing in a special election next week for the open Massachusetts Senate seat, and moderated by Gergen, is fascinating. Watch it first, then we’ll discuss:

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It’s not the Kennedy’s seat, and it’s not the Democrats’ seat. It’s the people’s seat.

If, against overwhelming odds, given Massachusetts’ political proclivities (number of Republicans in the state’s congressional delegation: zero), Brown can wrest the open Senate seat from Ted Kennedy’s cold, dead hands, he’s not only going to send a message to the nation that Obamacare is doomed, and probably the Democrats next fall as well. He’s also sending a message to the Democrat-Media Complex.

Note how easily Gergen reached back for what he thought was a blazing fastball — “You’re going to sit in Teddy Kennedy’s seat!” — and discovered that it was a hanging curve that Brown knocked over the Green Monster at Fenway, where it’s still bouncing around somewhere on the Mass Pike.

But that is how these people think: it’s Kennedy’s seat. That’s the narrative. But for the first time in half a century, the media’s wishing it were so may not make it so.

In fact, it’s not Kennedy’s seat. Currently, it belongs to this guy (D – Flunky), who was appointed as a desperation fill-in after the demise of the Lion of the Senate and after the Democrats slammed through a change in the law that allowed soon-to-be-former Gov. Deval Patrick to appoint an emergency placeholder to vote for the health-care bill. Mission accomplished, Sen. Kirk is now retiring, with the thanks of a grateful Massachusetts Machine.

Isn’t democracy grand?