Jon Stewart is coming after the CNBC media money-chat guys [5] -- just like he came after the media conservatives [6] back in 2006 -- and boy is America getting some good catharsis out of it.

This morning on “The Today Show,” Jim Cramer's attempt to defend himself against Stewart's charge that he advocated buying Bear Sterns just before the company tanked, was so wrongheaded that the web is vibrating [7] with outraged responses. [8] (And really, Jim, did you have to belittle stem cell research along the way?). On Twitter, Cramer-Stewart related tweets [9] are clocking in at about two or three a minute -- mostly relishing the beat-down Cramer is taking.

Then again, isn't Jon Stewart being a little ... slippery himself? Given that Cramer's job is to pick stocks, and to splutter and overemote as he does so? Cramer did make one decent point on "Today" when he said that anyone who picked any stock recently was wrong, since all stocks are down.

Everybody's a winner here. Stewart is once again embraced as a national hero, the guy who helps focus our anger at the people who've run our country into the ground. Cramer's the villain of the hour, but then again -- as he Twittered [10] on March 6: "wow lots of new friends/ followers on twitter!!! BIG BOOYAH! Stay tuned!"

 

.msnbcLinks {font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 425px;} .msnbcLinks a {text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px;} .msnbcLinks a:link, .msnbcLinks a:visited {color: #5799db !important;} .msnbcLinks a:hover, .msnbcLinks a:active {color:#CC0000 !important;}

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News [11], World News [12], and News about the Economy [13]