Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank -- Dana Milbank! -- slams White House press secretary Robert Gibbs as a “smart-aleck”:

Gibbs acts as though he's playing himself in the movie version of his job. In this imaginary film, he is the smart-alecky press secretary, offering zippy comebacks and cracking jokes to make his questioners look ridiculous. It's no great feat to make reporters look bad, but this act also sends a televised image of a cocksure White House to ordinary Americans watching at home.

And how many “ordinary Americans” are “watching at home” as Gibbs holds his daily press briefings? Basically, none. Milbank must know that, so I can only assume that what he really means is that he doesn't like the way Gibbs behaves. Too bad he isn't honest enough to make that clear rather than pretending he's channeling millions of Americans outraged over the performance of someone they've never heard of in a press briefing they never watch.

Milbank:

Gibbs didn't quite get it, though, as CBS's Chip Reid joked that he would try a question on “a different topic: the election in Massachusetts.”

The press secretary drummed a bah-dum-bum on the lectern. Reid ignored the percussion and asked whether the “groundswell of support for a Republican in the blue state of Massachusetts for a candidate who's running against the president's agenda” meant that “the White House has simply lost touch with the American people.”

Gibbs gave another dismissive wave and cited a CBS News poll that wasn't about Massachusetts.

Wait: Gibbs was asked whether the White House has “lost touch with the American people” and he responded by referring to a national poll, and Dana Milbank is upset that the poll “wasn't about Massachusetts?” That's inane. And it's a pretty clear indication that Milbank went looking for examples to fit his thesis rather than for a conclusion to fit the examples at hand.