Ah, Yes ... Everything We Stand For

A few days old, this is, but I don't think it's all that time-sensitive; it was already rotten when it happened:

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Campaigning for Democratic candidates in New Hampshire, Vice President Joe Biden said Monday the party's base should "stop whining."

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He said Democrats can win both races if they draw clear distinctions between themselves and their Republican opponents, and he urged Democrats to "remind our base constituency to stop whining and get out there and look at the alternatives. This president has done an incredible job. He's kept his promises."

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When asked to comment further about his "stop whining" remark, Biden said: "Those who ... didn't get everything they wanted, it's time to just buck up here, understand that we can make things better ... but not yield the playing field to those folks who are against everything we stand for."

As I can remember from my increasingly-distant past, this sort of talk is not exactly unknown to the Republican "base," either; particularly to the cultural-issues folks. Political parties -- aren't they wonderful? The playgrounds of vote-gathering technicians, like our illustrious Veep, the former senator from the great state of MasterCard Delaware. These people -- the political realists from both corporate-whore parties -- never met an idea, or a principle, that they didn't hate. Who needs that stuff? It just gets in the way of the real business of state: winning, and cutting up the swag.