Democrats Attack Their Own

At one time or another, President Obama has attacked Wall Street for its greed, doctors for their greed and insurance companies for theirs.

He has never stopped attacking the Bush administration. He has attacked the Tea Party movement and the Republican leadership. None of this seems to have worked very well, with the president's poll ratings at new lows and even such liberals as Wisconsin's Russ Feingold hesitant to appear with him.

So now the president and his allies are trying something new -- they are attacking their own voters.

At the end of that Rolling Stone interview, mentioned earlier, the president came back into the room and spoke, the magazine said, with intensity and passion. He said: "It is inexcusable for any Democrat or progressive right now to stand on the sidelines in this midterm election." The apathy among Democrats, he said, is "irresponsible."

Meanwhile, of course, Vice President Biden was telling Democrats to "stop whining." And Senator Kerry lamented that "we have an electorate that doesn't always pay that much attention to what's going on."

Mr. Obama and his allies are certainly not the first politicians to think the voters insufficiently appreciative of their wondrous achievements. But they may be the first to attack their supporters publicly for being irresponsible, whiny and ignorant.