AP: “Jen O’Malley Dillon, President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign manager and incoming deputy chief of staff, referred to congressional Republicans as “fuckers” in a conversation with the magazine. And Washington was again in a tizzy. The hand-wringing is a preview of one of the political shifts ahead once Biden takes office. Democrats preparing to take power are furious at any sign of a double standard from Republicans who looked past — or encouraged — President Donald Trump’s profane and divisive behavior in office.”
“And Republicans, eager to portray Democrats as elitists, are suddenly aghast over a lack of decorum. Although Marco Rubio didn’t condemn Trump’s comment about African ‘shithole countries,’ the Florida Republican senator seemed scandalized by O’Malley Dillon’s comment. He tweeted that it shows what Democrats ‘really think.”’White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted the comment ‘says volumes’ about Biden. She later walked back the comment in a virtual conversation with fellow Democratic operatives. While it’s easy to dismiss the O’Malley Dillon episode as another example of Washington’s endless capacity for self-obsession, it reveals some difficult truths. For one, the deference that Republicans showed the White House during the Trump era will be a thing of the past. The same party that cheered Trump for “telling it like it is” is poised to attack those in the incoming administration who deviate from the folkways expected in official Washington. ‘They’re going to look for any reason not to work with the Biden administration,’ former North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp said of Republicans. The new standard seems to be applied with particular vigor to women.”