Surprise, surprise. California Democratic Party chief John Burton isn’t going to pay any real price for comparing the GOP to Goebbels. He’s even gone back to California for a root canal – which is far better than a week in Charlotte.

So let’s just turn off the outrage meters and the media coverage. And try to remind ourselves of reality: Burton is Burton is Burton. It turns out if you’re a profane 79-year-old from San Francisco with a lifelong reputation for saying off-the-wall stuff, and you live up to that reputation, no one is going to care, no matter how many GOP press releases go out demanding that every Democrat on earth condemn his latest comments.

But since the national media doesn’t understand this, it’s time for California media and political types to clear things up so this doesn’t happen again.

The simplest way to handle this would be to present Mr. Burton with an official, laminated card – signed by major media figures and the governor – that would be a literal free pass.

“I CAN SAY WHATEVER THE F—K I WANT,” the card would say.

He could whip it out whenever necessary.

He should definitely take it on out-of-state trips.

Of course, there’s a downside to this, at least for Burton. If the rest of the country is officially informed that they’re free to ignore the profane, Nazi-invoking Burton, everyone should feel free to ignore the other things he might say. Even important things.

But that’s the Democrats’ problem. They put this guy in charge of their party.