santelli: waah, waah, waah

last week, cnbc's rick santelli went on a well-publicized rant on the floor of the chicago mercantile exchange, against the obama housing bill. much of santelli's rant focused on subsidizing "the loser's mortgages," bailing out your neighbor, etc. culimnating in an angry santelli basically mocking the adminstration, spouting "are you listening, president obama?" like a fussy school-boy.

agree or disagree with santelli's rant (and a great many agreed with it) he was certainly living – let's say basking in all the publicity surrounding his outburst.

until the white house news conference on friday. white house press secretary robert gibbs responded to santelli, by name, saying:

"I’ve watched Mr. Santelli on cable the past 24 hours or so. I’m not entirely sure where Mr. Santelli lives or in what house he lives but the American people are struggling every day to meet their mortgages, stay in their jobs, pay their bills, send their kids to school."

and gibbs went on, even inviting santelli to the white house to read the bill, offering to buy him a cup of coffee.

saturday, santelli claimed what gibbs said amounted to a "threat," and that "my kids are nervous to go to school."

on the today show this morning, matt lauer confronted santelli about it all, and santelli basically whined and curled up in a ball and said uncle:

,

hey santelli, if you're gonna step up to the plate, you gotta be in the game.