I’ve been critical of Josh Marshall for pandering to his liberal audience, so I have to give him and TPM DC blogger Brian Beutler credit for calling out the vile “treason” rhetoric of New York Democrat Eric Massa. (Massa said Chuck Grassley’s false claim that health care reform would create “a government program that determines if you’re going to pull the plug on grandma” was “an act of treason.”)

With that said, though, note the lengths to which Marshall had to go to avoid antagonizing his audience. The original post had the milquetoast title “That’s a Bit Much.” Marshall then quickly put up a followup post noting that “We’re getting some push back from readers” who demand leniency for extreme rhetoric to match the GOP. He reiterated his opposition to the use of treason accusations in that post in semi-apologetic fashion, but then posted two more reader emails that attempt to justify and contextualize Massa’s language. The first engages in brief throat-clearing about how treason is a “very strong word” before switching to a prolonged denunciation of extreme GOP rhetoric, while the second suggests that Massa’s status as a cancer survivor somehow excuses his behavior.

Also, it’s worth noting that TPM blogger David Kurtz approvingly quoted a reader email calling the GOP “a party of … treason” back in 2007, though Kurtz “hedge[d]” on the charge of “treason” in a parenthetical.