Kruggie to Fibbsie: You should be more like me … or something
Donning his unofficial but-well used administration spokesdude cap, Kruggie responds to the Robert Gibbs/”professional left” dust-up with some advice (bolded emphasis added by me):
Look, if you’re a public figure of any kind, you’re going to face a lot of criticism. Much of it will seem unfair to you; some of the unfair criticism will come from people you expected to take your side; you’ll be angry, you’ll feel that people are putting their egos or their personal aggrandizement above the cause.
Welcome to reality. It’s my reality — and I’m just a professor/columnist. Someone actually in the White House has to be prepared for much more of this kind of thing — and if you don’t have a thick enough skin to take it, find another form of employment.
I’m not saying to turn the other cheek and always say something polite as a general principle; by all means lash out at your critics, if you have something to gain by doing so. Rudeness at the proper moment can serve a purpose — as I hope I’ve demonstrated over the years. But if you vent for the sake of venting; if you alienate people you’re going to need; then you’re just being stupid.
Sez the dude who once wrote an entire column about how global warming “deniers” were engaging in “treason against the planet.” And who once went off on conservatives for allegedly launching “slime campaigns” in order to “punish injured children” (re: Graeme Frost and SCHIP). Oh, but you see, he’s actually being true to his word on this. “But if you vent for the sake of venting; if you alienate people you’re going to need; then you’re just being stupid.” And he rarely, rarely ever “vents” rudely against Obama (he gets called out when his criticism is not considered “constructive”) because our celebrity President and his administation are “people he needs” – and, face it, Kruggie’d probably feel a little left out if they stopped sending him and other liberal columnists dinner invites.
People he disagrees with? He “doesn’t need” them, so it’s ok to be rude, not to mention be a jerk. By being rude (and obnoxious, of course) he can play to the crowd he does “need” at the expense of anyone who dares to see things vastly differently than he does. This, apparently, is how an esteemed “intellectual” is supposed to go about winning a Nobel prize. Get it?
Got it. It’s Beltway Insiderism 101: Be slavishly nice to the people who can get you somewhere, and calculatingly brutal to the people who can’t – which will get you everywhere with your “other people.” 
– Laura, Staying Alive, 1983