This is just atrocious.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg does the GOP a big favor today by suggesting it's both conservatives and liberals who are responsible for unleashing “ugly” mobs on town hall forums and turning them into free-for-alls. Of course, Stolberg can't point to any actual proof to back up her claim. But it's just easier--and neater--to say both sides are at fault, right?

Actually, Stolberg does find evidence of how liberals and Democrats are helping make civil discourse this month impossible:

President Obama's political organization sent a mass e-mailing urging supporters to turn out for a[n]... event at a library, to “make sure your support for health insurance reform is seen and heard.”

Got it? The White House sent out an email urging people to attend town hall forums, and that's just like conservatives hanging politicians in effigy, issuing death threats, hounding Congressman all the way to their cars, and making it impossible for actual town hall debates to take place.

It's exactly the same.

And watch here as Stolberg plays dumb about the mimi-mobs [emphasis added]:

In some respects, last week's town halls — fueled on the right by antitax groups backed partly by industry, and on the left by unions — are the logical outgrowth of decades of American political activism.

It makes perfect sense that mini-mobs would descend on public forums to shout down legislation that's still be written. Why would anyone at the Times think that was odd or unusual? It's logical.

And behold this:

But last week's “town brawls,” as the news media dubbed them, do seem to represent a shift.

Gee, you think?