Aren't you tired of the who's-offending-whom game?
Clearly Republicans are. If they weren't, they'd be hanging "Dump Trump" signs on their doors.
At least you'd have thought that until some newly elected Democrats tripped over their pasts or swallowed their feet, giving GOPers a new thrill.
First, there's that strange land called Virginia where the top three state leaders - all Democrats - have been fricasseed for days on end now. Two are under fire for dressing in blackface during their college years decades ago and one (after it was announced that he was in line should the governor step down) has been accused in an alleged sexual assaults from years before.
(In this dust-up, the fourth in line is a Republican who, so far, is not tainted, though Virginia's other top Republican, Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment, is. Norment was in charge of Virginia Military Institute's yearbook in 1968, when it was similarly packed with blackface racism, according to The Virginian-Pilot.)
In other recent shunnings, Congress' first-elected Muslim women have been drubbed for tweets that offended.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the same guy who once tweeted, "We cannot allow Soros, Steyer and Bloomberg to buy this election!" now four months later is posing as an indignant defender of Jewish people and wants congressional action taken against freshmen Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
Tlaib's sin was using profane language as she promised supporters she would work to impeach the president. Omar's transgression was a tweet about political support for Israel and lobby money in Congress: "It's all about the benjamins," Omar wrote. Benjamins, for those of us who rarely see them, are $100 bills.
All of the above-mentioned Democrats have apologized profusely. McCarthy didn't.
And when have you heard Donald Trump apologize? The best he has yet mustered came a few days after the Hollywood Access tape emerged. "I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize," then-candidate Trump said. A few months later, he suggested to a senator and separately to an adviser that the tape was not authentic.
And then there's freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the poster-child of GOP - especially male GOP - angst.
First, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress had the audacity to be both beautiful and smart. The New Yorker allowed herself to be videoed dancing (OMG!) outside her Congressional office last month (It's been viewed online 21 million times) and she has become a social media phenomenon with posts and livestreams on everything from climate change to skin care tips to preparing dinner.
But this economics major and self-confessed "science nerd" is about more than Twitter and Instagram.
She campaigned on issues that put her at odds with the financial industry - separating commercial and investment banking, breaking up large banks, forgiving student debt and climate change. Her background enables her to explain these complex issues in real-people language. That - combined with her star power - is terrifying lobbyists and GOP politicians. They drag out the "socialist" label and hope she goes away.
There is one politician, of course, who is not terrified of her - or of the shame game making the rounds of Democratic freshmen's offices.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has defended her high-profile Democratic newbies, including Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Omar, who have come under increasing GOP attacks.
"You can't worry about what the Republicans are going to say about you," Pelosi told Politico for a story aptly headlined, To Hot to Handle. "This place is not a place for people who are worried about what the Republicans are going to say about you."
The article notes that Pelosi's efforts have paid off, especially with Ocasio-Cortez, even though Pelosi for now has sidestepped the freshman's Green New Deal proposal drafted with Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts.
The speaker, a long-time champion of stronger environmental rules, did agree to launch a select committee on climate change, similar to the one she created in 2007. But of "the green dream or whatever they call it," she said it will be one of several or maybe many suggestions the panel would consider.
It's true enough that none of us are without sin. Or blemish. Or foot-in-mouth disease.
We all - and certainly all politicians - need an occasional good dose of humility, the kind that comes with saying, "I'm sorry." But not for every little thing.
New York Times columnist Frank Bruni put it well in his Tuesday column urging Democrats to stop groveling: "In the context of Trump and the unprincipled Republicans who have enabled him, Democrats' willingness to search their souls, admit error and think expansively and inclusively is beyond refreshing. But too much self-flagellation and genuflection can look foolish and smack of fakery."
Bruni asked rhetorically if Democrats have learned nothing from Trump who bluffed through far worse embarrassments was rewarded by voters who "recast his obnoxiousness as authenticity, interpreted his infantilism as independence and gave him their support because he didn't seem to be prostrating himself for it (though, in many senses, he was)."
But who's counting? Certainly not the GOP.