The “Obama honeymoon,” as it is being referred to by the Chicago Sun-Times, is getting some help from an incredibly compliant White House press corps that seems to be taking tight management and an unresponsiveness to questions not just in stride, but with a tingly-legged eagerness to offer the incoming President whatever support and sycophantism he needs to look as good as possible on the podium.

The Sun-Times contrasts Obama’s treatment with that of impeached Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (DEMOCRAT), but for the purposes of actually making a comparison that matters (and that is equally if not more accurate), I’ve substituted outgoing President Bush’s name for Blago’s each time it appears in the following excerpt:

As ferociously as we march like villagers with torches against [Bush], we have been, in the true spirit of the Bizarro universe, the polar opposite with the president-elect. Deferential, eager to please, prepared to keep a careful distance.

The Obama news conferences tell that story, making one yearn for the return of the always-irritating Sam Donaldson to awaken the slumbering press to the notion that decorum isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The press corps, most of us, don’t even bother raising our hands any more to ask questions because Obama always has before him a list of correspondents who’ve been advised they will be called upon that day.

We reporters have earned our own membership in the Bizarro universe.

Who are we, after all? The ones rapid-firing at [George W. Bush] with tough questions until we drive him from the room? Or the Miss Manners crowd, silent until called upon, quietly accepting that only a handful of questions will be taken at a time?

The Obama honeymoon might not be exactly the polar opposite of [Bush]’s hell.

But, for the moment, it will do.

As Gay Patriot wrote yesterday:

I guess deference and eagerness to please are only a problem when addressing a Republican president. They couldn’t tolerate just one reporter deferential to President Bush, yet remain largely silent as the entire press crops bows and scrapes to the incoming Democratic president.