No, Rep. Omar -- What Is Wrong With You?

I don't want to be The Liberal Who Mysterious Only Yells At Liberals, but goddammit, my Representative shit the bed again:

How Ilhan Omar is dealing with the aftermath of her controversial remarks, as Pelosi says she won't be stripped from committee spots, Engel declines to comment, and Omar says: "What's wrong with you?" when asked about her morning tweet on Trump. pic.twitter.com/yPdEq3D7N2

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 14, 2019

Did she just say, "What is wrong with you?" I am absolutely serious when I ask if Ilhan Omar is a mean girl in high school.  That sentence does trigger me.  But I shocked, shocked I tell you, that no one else seems to think that such a spiteful retort is beneath the dignity of a congresswoman.  Most of liberal Twitter thinks she's defending herself and that Manu Raju and all his co-journalists at CNN are pro-Trump/Republicans for even deigning to ask such a question.

Rep. Omar and her backers have to understand that The Media, as with all things in life, is complex.  CNN should be excoriated for many things, the first of which is continuing to bring in Republican hacks to lie for the current administration.  But that is screeching debate talk that fills time on the network.  That isn't journalism.  What Raju and other reporters do is journalism.  And as an elected official who represents her constituency, me included, part of her duties is to deal with reporters doing their jobs in a way that dignifies her job.

Yes, what Raju asked can be -- not is, can be -- construed as gotcha journalism.  But first of all, Rep. Omar opened herself up that embarrassment by being tone deaf when it came to criticizing the powerful lobbying group AIPAC.  (She deleted a retweet of someone who may or may not be joking about Jewish stereotypes.  At first I thought she did something really stupid, but now I think deleting it was a CYA move, and a smart one.)  And second of all, there are many better and less whiny ways to deflect Raju's questions, or even bite back at his questions, without coming off as -- and I know I will catch hell saying it, but I'll say it anyway -- a bitch.  Why couldn't she just say something to the effect of, "I will refer you back to my statement, and I will not comment any further.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have a meeting to go to"?  Instead, she reacted, if not "angrily," (a word many of Omar's staunchest defenders pounced upon as a sign of white privilege), then like a brat.

So far in this term, Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have been the new representatives that have drawn the most attention.  Much of it is good, from the left, but we need to be honest that much of that attention is also racist from Republicans.  I have no doubt that Islamaphobia spurs much of the scrutiny Omar is facing right now.  But nevertheless I am seeing Omar, frankly, buckling under in, first, being flippant about quoting Biggie when dissing undue AIPAC influence in Congress, then trying to fend off questions from reporters about unintentionally using anti-Semitic tropes as she criticizes the power of lobbying groups in Washington, D.C.  Meanwhile, Ocasio-Cortez (or AOC) is doing splendidly.  Her mastery of Twitter in ridiculing Republicans while also showing knows everything about the topics she wants to tackle in Congress is making her a rock star.  She is kicking ass, and she is having a hell of a time doing it.  Omar, on the other hand (and despite ripping Elliott Abrams a new asshole about crimes he helped cover up in our name back in the eighties), sounds like someone who loves to wade into a heated subject without either knowing everything about it or caring how she sounds when she tweets about it.

And yes, she's having a crash course in optics when it blows back in her face.  But rolling with the punches appears to be the more important thing she needs to learn right now, and in my humble opinion, it is in fact Omar who has thin skin.  If she reacts to one trite question about a mess she made with "What is wrong with you?" like an abusive parent talking to a child who accidentally spilled milk for the second time during breakfast, she has no fucking chance standing up to Trump or Bitch McConnell or pipsqueak Kevin McCarthy or any of the Republican hitmen who undoubtedly are researching her background.

(BTW, I am not completely certain that the entire truth about her childhood, as irrelevant it might be to her work as a representative, has seen the light.  And she has taken up the wrong position in regards to the shit mess in Venezuela.  Oh, and I am absolutely sure that she will never visit the part of her constituency north of 694, where I live.)

I have no choice but to give her time and space.  But for fuck's sake, I need her to think before she tweets, use her intellect and passion to do some good in Congress, put her head down and fucking work, stop doing anything else that's stupid, and find a goddamn better way to address reporters when they annoy her.  Trashing The Media is what Republicans do, and if she wants to delegitimize them, she will agree to a fact-free world Republicans have made, and she will be a victim of the worst, most violent fantasy worlds the right will want to cook up about her and fellow Muslims.  The Media isn't her friend, but they seek the truth (for the most part), and Rep. Omar should use her head and fucking understand that.

In other words, Ilhan Omar needs to do better.  Starting now.  Please.

Edited at 4:49 p.m. Thursday evening to change this last bit.  Actually, I'm being harsh.  Rep. Omar did apologize, which has been accepted by many Jewish political groups.  Moreover, she clapped back at President Trump who had the brass balls to call her comments "lame" and demand she resign instantly.  (Can't find the tweet in which she demands he apologize for using anti-Semitic tropes, however.)  This is the representative I want -- working hard, acting smart, going after Republicans and not The Media.  More of this please, Rep. Oman.