ZOMG! Reporter Asks Dear Leader a Question!

The JournoList-tainted Politico has an Ezra Coordinate! Ezra Coordinate! moment:

In a surprising breach of normal etiquette, President Barack Obama’s Rose Garden remarks on Friday were interrupted by heckling from reporter Neil Munro of the website Daily Caller, where conservative commentator Tucker Carlson is the editor-in-chief.

Obama, announcing a change of policy that would allow the children of illegal immigrants to avoid deportation if they meet certain criteria, was interrupted mid-speech by Munro.

“Why’d you favor foreigners over Americans?” Munro shouted.

“Excuse me, sir, but it’s not time for questions,” Obama responded.

“Are you going to take questions?” Munro asked.

“Not while I’m speaking.” Obama said.

While it’s not unusual for Obama to be interrupted by occasional hecklers at big public events, the fact that a reporter brought Obama’s speech to complete halt startled members of the White House press corp.

Equally startled, the DNC goes ~~where no man has gone~~ where they always go, by playing (but of course!) the race card on MSNBC:

“This is just so unprecedented and outrageous, that you have to ask the question, would the right-wing president be doing this if we had a white president there?” MSNBC guest and Democratic strategist Julian Epstein said on the channel this afternoon.

“I think it’s a vert important question because I think this is the first African-American president. We’ve never had a white president been told by the opposing party to shut up in the middle of a major address to the Congress. We’ve never had a president like this heckled so disrespectfully. We’ve never had this otherness afforded to any other president and I think the right wing has some explaining to do because to me it’s patently obvious,” he said.

Sorry champ, your race card is all maxed out — as even admitted socialist Jon Stewart has said. And as Ace writes, “Reich-Wingers Helen Thomas and Sam Donaldson would never interrupt a white president.”

Besides, as Bryan Preston writes at the Tatler, “Actually, Mr. President, You Did Ask for an Argument:”

The sound bite coming out of that exchange is that the president said he isn’t asking for any arguments. That simply is not true, or given our representative republic, should not be true.

The president announced a major policy change that impacts not just the 800,000 illegal aliens who benefit, it impacts the entire country. By circumventing Congress, it impacts our rule of law. By announcing it in a way that suggests its political origins, it impacts the presidential race.

If the president expected no arguments, then he is deluded. If he will brook no arguments, then he is unfit for the office. He is not a king, and we are not his subjects. We have a duty to push back if we believe that his actions are wrong or illegal, both of which may apply to today’s seismic policy shift.

Also at the Tatler, “PJ Tatler EXCLUSIVE: Another view of Obama/Neil Munro exchange today over illegal immigration executive order.”

It’s certainly how the MSM views their relationship with the president they created.

Twitchy has a round-up of the reaction on Twitter; Instapundit has numerous links to the Blogosphere, including this:

Tucker Carlson: “I don’t remember Diane Sawyer scolding her colleague Sam Donaldson for heckling President Reagan. And she shouldn’t have. A reporter’s job is to ask questions and get answers. Our job is to find out what the federal government is up to. Politicians often don’t want to tell us. A good reporter gets the story. We’re proud of Neil Munro.”

You should be. He’s not a lapdog. And it’s rather late for the White House to try to stand on Presidential dignity.

Plus, Prof. Jacobson points out that it really is news when Obama gets a tough question from the press.

Twitchy spots John King of CNN not happy that the man portraying the leader of what used to be the free world was asked a question: