It’s becoming rather commonplace for a liberal so-called “journalist” to point out the double standard by which media members are in general quite accepting of domestic surveillance under the current administration.

Count former New York Times columnist Bob Herbert amongst those willing to acknowledge this, for on MSNBC’s Now Tuesday, Herbert said, "There would be just tons of outrage on the left if Bush, Cheney or any Republican were pursuing the same policies that Obama is pursuing in the war against terror" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced Wednesday it would not provide additional funds to help the town of West, Texas rebuild after a fertilizer plant explosion killed 15 and injured 160. MSNBC’s Alex Wagner seemed positively gleeful over the news.

The daytime host treated the development as a political defeat for Texas Governor Rick Perry (R), implying on Thursday’s Now that the tragedy – and FEMA’s denial of funding – were “the seeds” the governor sowed for his opposition to excessive federal spending and regulation. Wagner introduced Perry’s plea for federal funds by pairing it with a sound bite of the conservative governor’s opposition to excessive spending:

A new Gallup poll released on Monday found more Americans approve of former President George W. Bush than disapprove, for the first time since 2005. MSNBC’s weekday lunchtime anchor Alex Wagner just couldn’t stand the news.

The left-wing host expressed her dismay with the new poll on Wednesday’s Now, huffing that the “46 percent of Americans [who disapprove of Bush] apparently still have their memory intact.” Wagner has made it a tradition on her show to berate President Bush, even five years after he left office. Just two weeks ago, you may recall, she used a report on Bush’s bike ride with wounded veterans to mock the former president’s intelligence and decision-making – with barely a mention of the bike ride itself.

The hosts and analysts on MSNBC sunk to a new low on Friday, trashing the late Charlton Heston as somehow responsible for attempted ricin attacks on Michael Bloomberg and Barack Obama. After Now anchor Alex Wagner read excerpts from letters allegedly written by the man responsible for the poisonous mailings, guest David Corn snarled, "When you were quoting the letters that were sent, I was thinking, it sounds like Charlton Heston wrote these." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Speaking of the National Rifle Association, Corn impugned, "It doesn't surprise me that some unhinged individuals out there start to take [NRA speeches] literally and believe that now is the time to rebel and to strike out with violent means."

You can take the flack out of the DNC but you can't take the DNC out of the flack, especially it's MSNBC regular and newly-minted weekend host Karen Finney, who today said that Mitt Romney should have made a bigger deal out of the IRS scandal on the campaign trail. The only problem, of course, is that no one knew about the IRS's malfeasance until well after the election.

On Wednesday's Now with Alex Wagner, Ms. Finney claimed that, "Everybody knew about this investigation long before the election. So, if they were that freaked out, why didn't Romney make more of a big deal of it during the election?" Fortunately for viewers at home, former AP reporter Ron Fournier, now with National Journal, corrected Finney's ridiculous speculation. [See video after jump. MP3 audio here.]