When news came that Obama had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, I looked at my husband and said, "just watch, the wingnuts will lose it over this." And sure enough, I was right. But what threw me for a loop was how nakedly partisan CBS's Chip Reid was in attacking Obama for having the audacity to win the Nobel Prize, something even the great St. Ronnie didn't do:

REID: I mean, most Democrats have praised it, and most Republicans have said, you have got to be kidding me -- Ronald Reagan didn't get one, but Barack Obama, nominated 12 days after he was sworn in, gets a Nobel Peace Prize. And the fear among some, even some Democrats, is that this is going to widen the partisan divide and make things even more difficult to accomplish on every front.

Really? Even more difficult than reflexively fighting *every* *single* Obama agenda item now? How is that possible?

It's touching, isn't it, to hear Chip Reid's concern that this will widen the partisan divide? After all, past winners have included Al Gore and Jimmy Carter...obviously the Nobel committee loves them some Democrats.

But here's the thing that all these insulated Beltway Villagers continually forget: Outside of DC, life is more than Republican vs. Democrat, something that Gibbs gently tries to suggest to Reid:

GIBBS: I'll leave the pundicizing to the pundits. The notion that somehow this is going to more greatly divide America, you know, I think it should be mandatory that pundits spend a certain amount of their days each year outside of the friendly confines of the viewership of the Washington, D.C., media market.

Of course, that goes right over Reid's head. For Reid, this is all about dismissing the Nobel committee -- in Norway, mind you, and not subject to the mind-numbing partisan reduction that Reid seems to breathe as oxygen -- as some liberal organization. He just can't get his head wrapped around the fact the Ronald Reagan -- the man who ended the Cold War! -- was never awarded the Peace Prize. As my friend, Steve Benen says:

A few thoughts here. First, when White House correspondents from major news outlets start sounding like members of Grover Norquist's "We Love Reagan" fan club, it's not a positive development.

Second, the notion that Reagan "helped bring the Cold War to an end" is, at best, a dubious proposition.

Actually, I think Chip Reid is unintentionally letting us into his psyche more than he realizes. He's continually been a go-to guy for Republican talking points for years. He routinely criticizes Democrats for things he lets pass by Republicans and uncritically passes on Republican attacks without context or fact-checking. And here again, he mouths the GOP mentality.

But think about it: if the Nobel Peace Prize only supports liberal causes, isn't Chip Reid admitting that peace is liberal? Then we need never look to conservatives again, because they will never bring peace. Right, Chip?

Transcript below the fold

REID: Following up on the political question, I think the point a lot of your favorite people, pundits, have been making is that the response to this has been like this. I mean, most Democrats have praised it, and most Republicans have said, you have got to be kidding me -- Ronald Reagan didn't get one, but Barack Obama, nominated 12 days after he was sworn in, gets a Nobel Peace Prize. And the fear among some, even some Democrats, is that this is going to widen the partisan divide and make things even more difficult to accomplish on every front.

MR. GIBBS: I'll leave the pundicizing to the pundits. The notion that somehow this is going to more greatly divide America, you know, I think it should be mandatory that pundits spend a certain amount of their days each year outside of the friendly confines of the viewership of the Washington, D.C., media market.

I think people -- I think people believe that, again, what this represents -- renewed American leadership in order to make our country safer, and to live up to our own ideals and the ideals that many in the world want to live up to -- it's a good thing, it's an important thing. I don't think it's a partisan thing.

REID: And one last question. A lot of people think it is a partisan thing, because Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, and now President Obama have all received awards for work on --

MR. GIBBS: I don't know what party Teddy Roosevelt was in, but I don't think it was Republican -- or Democrat.

REID: I know, I know. Whatever.

MR. GIBBS: He got it, just, you know, I --

REID: But Ronald Reagan, could I just ask you to respond to that? The man who helped bring the Cold War to an end did not --

MR. GIBBS: But let me just do -- but let me do this -- but let me do this, Chip. I'm not a member of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. I hate --

REID: But the argument is --

MR. GIBBS: No, no, no, no.

REID: -- it's an organization that supports liberal causes.

MR. GIBBS: And I hope you can get somebody on the phone at this hour in Oslo. I'm not a member of the committee, and I'll let you do that. The notion that this is -- somehow widens the partisan divide I think demonstrates what's wrong with pundits and instant analysis of what goes on in our society