Verbal “gaffes” & double standards

“Liberals routinely dismiss Biden’s gaffes as the rhetorical excesses of an overly exuberant speaker — it’s ‘Joe being Joe’“, begins a recent piece on the Vice President’s “chains” comment.  The writers continue noting how the Democrat would be excoriated for his words had he spoken them as a Republican

And there can be something appealing about a politician who throws caution and the script that goes with it to the winds. Yet when conservative speakers get overly exuberant and cross a rhetorical line, they are presumed racist or culturally insensitive, rather than refreshingly free-spirited. One standard should apply.

You might think this was something on conservative blog or from a right-of-center editorial page.  No, it’s actually from the Boston Globe, a left-of-center journal.  And these liberal editors had asked us to . . .

imagine if Republican Paul Ryan uttered comments like that. Mitt Romney’s pick for vice president would be pilloried for racial insensitivity — and so would Romney. In the fight for civility and substance over pointless hyperbole, Biden may not be the worst offender. But he’s an offender nonetheless, and he should apologize.

Don’t hold your breath.  That said, it’s nice to see a liberal newspaper wake up and realize that media reaction to gaffes often depends not on the content of the remark but on the partisan affiliation of the one who makes it.