As the blogs digest George Will’s column on the Webb-Bush exchange, a number of writers are drawing parallels to Cheney telling Pat Leahy to f*** himself on the Senate floor.

These writers ask why some D.C. pundits castigate Senator-Elect Webb for his comments even though failed to take the VP to task for his. Is this the GOP message machine in action? Is this anything like the tut-tutting of the D.C. insider class when the Clintons “trashed” Washington?

Honestly, I think it’s much simpler.

Washington works top-down. Like a clique in your average high school. You have to know your place — suck up to those with more social capital, spit on those with less. The difference between Webb’s comment and Cheney’s has nothing to do with partisanship. To the D.C. gang, Cheney as VP has the right to piss on Leahy, who’s only a senator. Webb, as a lowly senator-elect, is supposed to show deference to the “higher-ranking” Bush.

That’s the kind of bollocks that made me hate life in Washington.