Paul Krugman on the darkly funny prospect of some people's sudden wake-up call (my emphases):
[T]here has been, I have to admit, an element of comic relief — of the black-humor variety — in the spectacle of so many people who have been in denial suddenly waking up and smelling the crazy.Glad to see that Krugman's in a "willing to point the finger" mood these days:
And may I say to those suddenly agonizing over the mental health of one of our two major parties: People like you bear some responsibility for that party’s current state.He's referring to pundits now wringing their hands, whose hands went un-wrung for years. (We call those people "operatives," but that's a quibble.)
Krugman then takes a side-trip into "how crazy are they?" land, with statements like this:
If a Republican president had managed to extract the kind of concessions on Medicare and Social Security that Mr. Obama is offering, it would have been considered a conservative triumph. But when those concessions come attached to minor increases in revenue, and more important, when they come from a Democratic president, the proposals become unacceptable plans to tax the life out of the U.S. economy.If this were a post about Obama, that quote alone would be a scandal.
But let's press on; this is a post about pundit responsibility:
Which brings me to the culpability of those who are only now facing up ... Mr. Bush squandered the surplus of the late Clinton years, yet prominent pundits pretend that the two parties share equal blame for our debt problems. ... [T]here has been no pressure on the G.O.P. to show any kind of responsibility, or even rationality — and sure enough, it has gone off the deep end. If you’re surprised, that means that you were part of the problem.Very close, sir. In the article, you point the finger (at one point) at "those within the G.O.P." But the last bolded statement above applies to many (if not most) in the media.
Maybe it's time to take that next step, sir, and call out the rest of them from high atop those valued column inches at the New York Times? After all, as you've pointed out many times, this isn't just academic (heh) — there's a whole lot at stake.
Mes petits sous, of course.
GP
