A Tale of Two Strident A-Holes

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, etc... In that time there were two men, and two political parties. On the one side stood a Reverend, a man who's comments were so strident and downright ugly that those in the other party strongly disliked the Reverend. Hearing this strong dislike, the members of the Reverend's party listened to the Reverend's words and said to themselves; "You know I can see how some folks on the other side might think this guy was a strident a-hole. We're gonna minimize his influence in every way we can."

Now the other party had a similar man. A man that spoke ugly half-lies about the opposing party. A man the opposing party felt was a strident a-hole. This man had drug problems and preached against drug users, this man went with whores and had been divorced three times, but preached against other's marital indiscretions. Indeed this man seemed thoroughly corrupt to the opposing party. But did the strident a-hole's party say to themselves "You know I can see how some folks on the other side might think this guy was a strident a-hole. We're gonna minimize his influence in every way we can." No they did not. In fact they made this man king of their political party.

It was the brightest of times, it was the dimmest of times, yada yada yada