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I wrote yesterday: “As expected, the liberal establishment will characterize voters as tantrum-throwers. When initiatives go their way, voters are wise, smart, discerning citizens. When initiatives fail miserably, the electorate is a moronic mob.”

Case in point: The Sacramento Bee’s sneering editorial flipping the bird to Californians who overwhelmingly rejected the tax-and-spend ballot measures (title: “You did it! Uh, so now what?”). After getting called out not only by hometown readers, but also nationally by Rush Limbaugh, the Bee yanked the editorial and replaced it with a kinder, gentler piece that did a complete 180 — from denigrating voters to counseling politicians that “You can blame the voters for reacting with uninformed and misplaced anger. Or you can look in the mirror and admit you had it coming. And you know you did.”

Blaming the voters? Reacting with misplaced anger? I smell projection. Guess the Sacto Bee editorial board had a look in the mirror.

The newspaper says it neeeever intended to publish the original editorial. Andrea Shea King and Dave Logan have the scoop. An editor told Logan the original rantings were just random notes. Just “thoughts.”

Yes, just “thoughts.” Thanks to copy-and-paste and caching, California voters will always know what the Sacramento Bee really thought of the election results and how they really think of the peons who buy their newspaper. Or used to buy it.

We don’t call them the media elite for nothing.

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Aside: I survived a few years on a predominantly liberal editorial board in Washington state, which also has the initiative/referenda process — and I can tell you from firsthand experience that the contempt the Sacto Bee showed in its original “draft” editorial towards voters who didn’t vote their way is the same contempt I saw at the Seattle Times.

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More from: Doug Ross, Mark Steyn