Sen. Mike Lee: Tea Party Darling

Senator Mike Lee from Utah, the Tea Party favorite who won his Senate seat last year by defeating a very conservative but not conservative enough Sen. Robert Bennett, was on the talk shows last night. In an appearance on Hannity, Sen. Lee referred to President Obama as "His Imperial Majesty." Lee is a young man, only forty years old, and watching him I realized that he is precisely the kind of obnoxious campaign operative that both parties produce. They say things like that in private, demeaning their opponents, evidencing a "win at all costs" approach to politics that is juvenile, as if they weren't good enough to make the football team so they put all their testosterone into political fights. I have encountered many such nasty operatives in Democratic circles, but it is really shocking to see someone on national television talking this way. Say what you want about Obama but there has been nothing imperial about his presidency and the man clearly has no pretensions to majesty.