Shake That Box Of Rats

A guy I used to do improv with was fond of quoting this behavioral experiment. If you put a bunch of rats in a box, and close it up, then start shaking the box, the rats will attack each other. Perhaps it's because they don't know who to attack to make the box stop shaking.

In the case of the right wing blogosphere, it's because the box is just shaking on its own. There is so much indefensible crap going on at the White House nowadays that writing about it is out of the question. Madeline's Dad at Where Are My Keys has creatively taken to complaining that the Liberal Media isn't covering the Sandy Berger documents smuggling story. It's not exactly news at this point, but at least he hasn't started snapping at his boxmates.

For that spectacle, enjoy this account over at Firedog Lake of the public bitch-slapping going on between Matt Drudge and Michelle Malkin. Sample Drudge:

Maybe I’ll stand in front of like a blue screen and hold a banana and start talking into the Internets. (Sneering tone) ‘This is Matt Drudge reporting on Hot Air.’ Agggh. You know. It’s ridiculous. Looks like, you know, Captain Kangaroo time, Michelle. Get real.

Sample Malkin:

You would think someone with a website design circa 1980 might appreciate our priorities.

Indeed. Meanwhile Scarborough snaps at O'Reilly, and everybody hates Alberto. Whew, it's getting hot in here!

It's wrong of me to take pleasure in this. Deliciously wrong. But the sheer novelty of watching the synchronized talking-points team disagree with each other is a spectacle I can't help but savor. I'm thinking of getting one of those paint-mixer machines like they have a Home Depot, to shake the box faster.