Beam In Thy Own Eye

Turns out that Florida GOP chair Jim Greer, who has ruthlessly attacked Obama's planned speech to schoolchildren, went across Florida's schools to speak to schoolchildren himself.

It was Greer who, in a striking tantrum, issued a statement condemning the president for, among other things, trying to "indoctrinate America's children to his socialist agenda." He added that Obama "has turned to American's children to spread his liberal lies." Greer's hysterical press release said the very idea of a political figure taking a political message to school children is "infuriating" and "an invasive abuse of power."

Obviously, for sane people, the claim itself is ridiculous. What we didn't know at the time was that it was also remarkably hypocritical. The Orlando Sentinel's Scott Maxwell had an important column today.

There once was a political operative who loved to tell crowds he had a simple way of explaining to children the difference between Republicans and Democrats.

"Republicans get up and go to work," he would tell his son. "Democrats get up and go down to the mailbox to get their checks."

This man not only talked to his son about Republican values, he went into public-school classrooms and talked about them as well.

That man is Jim Greer -- the same Jim Greer who, as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, just threw a nationwide hissy fit, claiming that the classroom is no place for politics and Barack Obama's "indoctrination."

One Seminole County mother, Barbara Wells, remembers the day Greer spoke to her son's sixth-grade class. "My son said he made some sort of Hillary Clinton joke," she recalled.

But you know what? Wells didn't pitch a fit. She didn't call up the local TV station to scream about Republican indoctrination. Instead, she advised her son: "Whatever you are told in life, remember there are two sides to every story."

Greer argued on Thursday, "Before anybody talks to my children from a political perspective, I want to know what they have to say." Of course, the administration is letting school districts know exactly what the president will say the day before his remarks. And how about Greer? Did he run his pro-Republican message by parents and school officials before he talked to school kids?

"That was different," Greer said.

Actually, it's not. The president of the United States wants to encourage children to work hard and do well in school. This caused Greer to have some kind of breakdown and accuse Obama of "indoctrination." But it's Greer who's taken partisan messages directly to school classrooms.

And this piece of work is the head of Florida's state Republican Party. Other Florida Republicans were contacted, and not a one of them was willing to go on record as calling Jim Greer out.

But that's how Republicans roll: viciously attack and smear Democrats for anything that you've done yourself.