Politico reporters are badly burning themselves on Twitter these days.

Last night (as yours truly noted this afternoon), the web site's Roger Simon, apparently upset that Rick Perry is doing his job, tweeted that the Texas governor is "sending 1,000 National Guard troops to border to shoot small children." Yet 12 hours later, Glenn Thrush, another longtime Politico veteran, tweeted a plea for civility, begging people not to use a popular opponents' nickname for Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis (HT RedState):

So ridiculing politicians by giving them negative nicknames is absolutely intolerable, unacceptable, and out of bounds.

But accusing a governor of sending in the National Guard for the purpose of deliberately shooting children is fine.

If you think I exaggerate, check out Thrush's insolent response to Twitter critics who began demanding that he denounce Simon's tweet:

So if Simon or anyone else called Perry a mean nickname like "Kid Killing Ken," that would be just awful. But what else, given no visible condemnation of any kind, can anyone conclude other than that Thrush is okay with Simon's "shoot small children" tweet?

I personally like "pre-born baby-killing backer Barbie" as Wendy Davis's nickname, Glenn. And unlike unlike "Kid Killing Ken," my nickname for Davis fits.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.