Earlier I wrote of John McCain's belief that criticism of Sarah Palin has been the most vicious and personal he has seen in all his years of politics.

Now others are jumping onto the "it's not fair" bandwagon to explain away criticisms of themselves.

In a Q&A sesssion with The Stillwater Republican, Rep. Michele Bachmann answered a question about some of the bad press she has received from saying incredibly stupid things.

Q: A lot has been made of some of your statements — the “gangster government” comment, the “anti-American” comment. Is there anything you’ve said that you regret?

A: Oh, gosh, absolutely. Of course, I wish I could be more artful in the way that I say things. But the other thing I’ve noticed that is kind of interesting is it seems like there’s also a double standard and bias in the mainstream media.

Polls today say that the American people more than ever think the mainstream media is biased in favor of the liberal position. And so conservatives, especially conservative women, are held to a completely different standard than liberals.

Let's look at this "completely different standard" Malkin speaks of, shall we?

I have written of the vicious attacks against the Obama family from racist taunts to all out calls for treason...but I don't see anyone taking a stand against this behavior in the Conservative media (a.k.a. FOX News).

Remember when Sean Hannity took Democratic Congressman Earl Blumenauer of Oregon to task about Blumenaur supposedly undermining the president?

"...And what I find frankly repugnant about you and some of your fellow Democrats – you have undermined our president, you have undermined our troops, you have undermined our war effort from day one and you’re doing it for the sinister reason of political gain..."

Hannity later refused to condemn Ted Nugent for saying such sparkling things as:

"Obama, he's a piece of shit, and I told him to suck on my machine gun," Nugent said in front of a screaming crowd as he brandishes what appear to be two large assault rifles.

After Nugent's outburst, Hannity called him "friend and frequent guest on the program".

Here is another quote:

"..Every American, including media people, should evaluate the president and form conclusions. That is our duty as citizens. But this hate stuff, this rooting for the administration to fail in Iraq and other areas is un-American, unbecoming, and unacceptable. Like him or not, Mr. Bush is the elected leader of this country and he deserves a fair hearing..."

Do you know who said that one? Bill O'Reilly. Back in 2007.

I recall Michelle Malkin, Rick Santorum, Tom Delay, and Rush Limbaugh proclaiming their desire for Obama to fail....yet when similar pronouncement were made toward Bush, that was considered un-American. When spoken against Obama, however, the charges of un-Americanism simply disappear.

I don't recall O'Reilly taking any of them to task and calling them un-American for "rooting for the administration to fail" as he did in 2007 when people weren't supporting Bush.

That is pretty much the definition of a "completely different standard".

Of course, Bachmann the one who declared that the health-care reform rally she spearheaded (the one where protesters compared health-care reform to the holocaust) was in fact not another case of Republican astro-turfing but was instead "organic".

When her hypocrisy is pointed out, I would wager that, too, is part of a devious "different standard" than that of liberals.

Bachmann is participating in the Reach Out and Read program, a national effort to train doctors and nurses to advise parents on the importance of reading to their children.

The program gives books to health providers to give to parents at well-child checkups from six months of age to five years old.

It receives federal funding through the Labor/Health and Human Services/Education Appropriations bill (Word .doc), which Bachmann voted against twice in 2007.

Not good enough to vote for funding...but good enough for a photo op?

Maybe because my examples of hypocrisy were mostly men (O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Hannity, etc.) the Bachmann believes the real "different standard" is against women.

How about how the right attacked the Dixie Chicks for airing their political opinions? How was what they said any worse than praying for Obama to fail? For speaking of treason?

Conservative women aren't held to a different standard than liberals or anyone else. Hypocrites are called out for their hypocrisy. So are people who make moronic statements. This might be what is chafing Bachmann being that she is guilt of both.