Thank you, George Bush. I wish you'd do it more. The tone did indeed change in Washington; the wailing of a thousand agenda-driven hacks become more and more shrill. The modern mainstream "elite" media - the self-proclaimed high priests of knowledge, the Imperial Media - perform a function in our society (badly), but there is no need to scrape and bow to them like they run the country.

In solidarity, I'm flipping off the Strib Online even as we speak.

That's his right, even if it makes him the only born-again man whose favorite philosopher is Jesus Christ who flips people off like a sailor.

But the press -- we whipped dogs and disreputable stand-ins for the American people -- didn't even raise a whimper.

"Stand-ins for the American people?"

No. The press is solopsistic, self-referential, self-reverential, and a business. Not a holy calling. Not a noble crusade for the truth. It's a job; people explaining what happened (supposedly).

A president showing disdain for the media is nothing new. But doing it with a contemptuous gesture that is offensive to millions does not just insult the press. It insults anyone who relies on the press to tell us what our leaders are doing. When presidents flip off the press, Americans get the finger.

(So far this year).

No, Nick. No, self-proclaimed high priests of knowledge. You do not represent this country; we elect people to do that. If the president flips off Betty McCollum...well, bad example. But whatever - the press doesn't represent me (or anyone who wants unvarnished fact) any more than Johnson and Johnson does.

Did I mention the left was getting the vapors? Coleman quotes John Aravosis of the left of center Americablog:

"The president thinks his conservative moral beliefs should be shoved down our throats. Then he flips people off. He's a phony. That's the story. I don't know about you, but my priest doesn't run around in public flipping people off."

If some moron cuts you off on the road, or if a bunch of empty Brooks Brothers suits consistently flog their agenda at your expense, anger knows no political alignment. It happens. I do it, the President does it, I'd suspect Mother Theresa did it once or twice.

Anyone who cares about the role of the press in a free society might worry when a president dismisses the press with an emperor's crude gesture.

It's a gesture any working stiff knows - and, for the most part, lets slide.

But maybe it was only a thumb. I'd like to believe that. Yes, the president gave the press a thumbs up! He really likes us! Just a thumb! The longest thumb we ever have seen.

Right in the eye.