How bad was his grandstanding opposite Miller at Wednesday’s briefing? Bad enough that even Trump-hater Joe Scarborough accused him this morning of having gone “off the rails.” Acosta has achieved the impossible, uniting the fractured American right via his preening wankery.

He took a few minutes last night to prove to the skeptics how impartial and agenda-less he is by tweeting out Emma Lazarus’s poem as a rebuke to the White House:

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, — Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 3, 2017

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" — Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 3, 2017

I’m embarrassed to say I’d forgotten that he made the biggest stink of any cable news reporter when the White House temporarily turned off the cameras for the daily briefing last month. It was essential to basic government accountability, he insisted, that the people be able to watch the press secretary engage in thoughtful, substantive exchanges with the media on key issues of the day. And now here we are:

Acosta: Cameras!

WH: You’ll grandstand

A: you’re killing the 1st amend!

WH: Jim..

A: no transparency!

WH: Fine

A: I’d like to debate a poem. — Razor (@hale_razor) August 3, 2017

The irony of him insisting that Miller couldn’t take the heat is that some liberals and pro-immigration Republicans conceded on Twitter after the briefing that Miller had gotten the better of the exchange. How could he have failed to? Miller was talking policy, Acosta was talking poetry. Miller “exploded” not because Acosta’s argument put him on the defensive but because he refused to engage on the substance, preferring to condescend to him about betraying the Statue of Liberty. Does admitting massive numbers of low-skilled immigrants suppress wages for low-skilled Americans? If so, shouldn’t we prioritize our own citizens over immigrants? Acosta: “Give me your tired, your poor…” If you’re a Democrat worried about prying working-class voters away from Trump, the Acosta approach does you more harm than good.

Here he is yesterday talking about bringing “the heat” and in an earlier segment with Wolf Blitzer noting that “this White House has had an unhealthy fixation on what I call the ‘three Ms’: the Mexicans, the Muslims, and the media.” Like I say, impartial and agenda-less. Exit question: What limits on immigration would Acosta propose, if any? If you take the Lazarus poem serious as policy, the door should be open to everyone at all times, especially the low-skilled. I’d guess that only the left-most 20 percent or so of the U.S. population shares that view. See why CNN has an image problem with Republicans?