I was mostly a fan of the Clintons before they tried to bully Shuster. The Clintons self-proclaimed strategy has been to "hit back and twice as hard." That may be effective advice to John Kerry who initially turned the other cheek to the Swiftboaters, but it was complete overkill to go after Shuster.

They indiscriminately went after what they saw was criticism--and it was a profound distraction from the Clinton cmpaign. The first rule of politics is to say "on message." MSNBC is the most progressive place around but it will only stay that way if they can handle criticism.