Paul Begala today has written one of the nastiest, most despicable columns I’ve seen in some time. David Broder is no conservative, by any means, but he is justly revered as a thoughtful, fair-minded, old-fashioned, shoe-leather journalist. Of course, a hit-man like Begala can’t stand people who actually try to uphold standards of decency and old-fashioned values, so he calls Broder a “gas-bag.” Physician, heal thyself.

I met Begala the other day at CNN. I actually made the mistake of introducing myself to him as if he were a decent human being. He even acted, in terms of surface-level politeness, like a decent human being, albeit one who had no desire to actually engage in conversation with an actual conservative. I was trying to talk about bipartisanship. He kept staring at a computer screen. He was probably looking for more evidence that center-left establishmentarians are actually members of the vast right-wing conspiracy.

Gasbag.