Instapundit links approvingly to this Scotty McLellan press release, where the White House flack attacks the only surviving Kennedy brother:

It is regrettable that Senator Kennedy has chosen Veteran's Day to continue leveling baseless and false attacks that send the wrong signal to our troops and our enemy during a time of war. It is also regrettable that Senator Kennedy has found more time to say negative things about President Bush then he ever did about Saddam Hussein. (emphasis mine)

Perhaps it's me, but isn't it the duty of every American statesman, especially the leader of the opposition, to be more critical of our own leader than some random foreign dictator. I bet George Bush has found more time during his political career to say negative things about the opposition in his own country than he has about Saddam Hussein; he certainly has said nastier things about the other side more frequently than he has about the man actually responsible for September 11, Osama bin Laden.

Nor is this some unique aspect of our current partisan age. Clement Atlee probably mentioned Winston Churchill more often (and not always in a nice way) than he did Tojo, Hitler and Mussolini combined after WWII. It is an historical fact that Republicans during WWII spoke more critically of FDR than they did of any Axis leader. Certainly, there was more criticism of Bill Clinton from the likes of Newt Gingrich and Tom Delay than there was of Slobadan Milosevic, or even of Saddam Hussein. And although I may not agree with the factual basis of their criticism, any sincere partisan would have been right to do so; indeed, it was the patriotic obligation of Clement Atlee, Bob Taft, Newt Gingrich and Ted Kennedy to do so, and not to preface their opposition by saying that some deposed ex-dictator was worse.

It seems there is the whiff of the authoritarian underlying the White House's (and Prof. Reynolds') worldview....