Op-Ed Columnist: The Uncivil War By PAUL KRUGMAN, NYTimes

[I]t was predictable that the administration and its allies, no longer very successful at claiming that questioning the president is unpatriotic, would use appeals to good manners as a way to silence critics. …

Smart conservatives admit that their own side was a bit rude during the Clinton years. But now, they say, they’ve learned better, and it’s those angry liberals who have a problem. The reality, however, is that they can only convince themselves that liberals have an anger problem by applying a double standard. …

More important, the Bush administration — which likes to portray itself as the inheritor of Reagan-like optimism — actually has a Nixonian habit of demonizing its opponents. …

All this fuss about civility, then, is an attempt to bully critics into unilaterally disarming — into being demure and respectful of the president, even while his campaign chairman declares that the 2004 election will be a choice “between victory in Iraq and insecurity in America.”