Our Most Sacred Institutions

They toned it town once they started tipping things more to their liking, but railing aginst Liberal Judges (in general and by name including on the Supreme Court) was a thing conservatives did for decades. If a Dem went out and did a barn burning speech about what a shit Clarence Thomas is - even right now! - the press would be filled with anonymous sniping from other Democrats about how rude and unhelpful it was.

Fear of conflict, absurd belief in the importance of maintaining respect in rotten institutions, unwillingness to critique elites of any kind... I'm not sure precisely what the reason is.

When these types of things happen, a lot of people say, "imagine if this was a Dem," as a criticism against journalists. This is not a meritless complaint, as the press and their favorite sources tend to kneecap vocal Dems and obscure the wrongdoings of Republicans. But the other part of this is "imagine what Lindsey Graham would be saying" and asking why Dick Durbin [or whoever] isn't doing similar.

The political press is generally bad, but it isn't actually their job to fight your battles for you.