Dear Dr. Bones,
The last (?) and least (in some ways) of Aunt Nitsy’s sad op-ed sack of idiot nephews and nieces has quite unaccountably discovered America:
| There are many other elements in play, but put these big ones together and what do you get, on a comparative basis? The Democrats worsen the deficits by a net of about $640 billion, while Republicans worsen them by some $1.1 trillion — almost twice as much. (...) I grant that estimates about jobs and revenue are uncertain. But they are not meaningless, and the strong implication is that Republican rule would lead to the Trifecta of Torment: higher unemployment, worse deficits and greater inequity. |
Nothing new here for the Muses or you or me, sir, nor for any decent political adult, unless one absurdly promotes it to the rank of News that Mr. Kristof suddenly wants to join the club.
He’s a little shy about it, though. He seems dreadfully afraid that somebody who was struck the Two Nations Unequal question all along is going to bark at him rudely, "So where have you been all these years, little laddie?" Of course you and I would never do that. Quite apart from good manners, we already know exactly where Master Nicholas has been, call it "Outer Dárfúrestán."
What makes his account of finally seeing the Great Whight Light so unaccountable is that he relentlessly pretends to have been somewhere else altogether. He claims to have been watching the holy Homeland™ all along, not gadding about in other people’s souks ten thousand kilometres away from Wall Street, to say nothing of Main Street. The trouble, says he, is that he has up to this morning been watching US from a klassenkampflos perspective that he has now discovered to be inadequate:
| We journalists (sic) tend to cover politics the way we cover sports: "Republicans are gaining yardage on their immigration play! ... The Tea Party is stealing second base! ... A bench-clearing brawl over health care! ... Look at the politicians and pundits mud-wrestle! |
That is how he begins today’s scribble, apparently hoping to achieve a preëmptive strike on the "Where have you been?" front.
What a prodigy of self-ignorance is N. D. Kristof! There certainly exist paid scribblers who cover figurative and literal horse races, but NDK is not one of them. He does not, or did not, do donkey-versus-elephant any more than he does/did Redsox-v.-Yankees. What he did do was Outer Dárfúrestán. Only O.D. and nothing more. And that small percentage of Homeland™ers who recognize the laddie’s name when they hear it are bound to be aware that he does not at all belong to them journalists who tend to cover politics the way they cover (other) kiddie games.
In short, if you know who Master Nicholas is, you can’t believe a word of his alibi. And if you don’t know, I betcha you’re not going to start caring who he is or what he is up to as from Thursday, 7 September 1431/2010/5771. [1]
Why on G*re’s green earth should you? Apart from the autobiographical fudge and flumnnnery, this piece is a perfectly respectable statement of the eternal case for us jackasses and against America’s Otherparty. Perfectly respectable, but not at all exceptional either in its analysis or in its invective.
***
Nevertheless, there is one extreme singularity lurking inside it, one that has no direct connection with politics, adult or horse-race. Allow me to point it out:
| . . . as Andrew Romano, a senior writer for Newsweek, noted in an excellent blog post THAT HELPED INSPIRE THIS COLUMN, the Republicans propose other actions that worsen the fiscal situation even more. For starters, the Republicans favor almost $700 billion in extended tax cuts for the most affluent Americans. The Democratic leadership opposes them. |
Almost any hired scrivener would stand out if she had made that public confession of self-nonreliance, but coming from a Timesster it takes the breath away. Try to imagine Little Tommy Wobble with the big moustache ever admitting that certain of his ... (ahem) ... ‘inspirations’ were not altogether 100.00% indigenous and autochthonous! Even though it is plain that most Friedmann performances come straight from somebody with whom the hack ate lunch the other day, conveyed to us "untouched by human thought," as it were.
It does not matter for my purpose here whether Mr. Romano’s piece is really as ‘excellent’ as Master Nicholas makes out. It may matter a little, though, that it should be about a month old, dated "August 27, 2010."
I am also inclined to subtract a few points from Krystof’s score for that quotation from Comrade Buffett, which, though very striking, has already floated past down the stream of discourse rather too many times.
On the other hand, perhaps it was brand new in Outer Dárfúrestán last month when Kristof first saw it? Perhaps.
And I wish you, sir,
Happy days through affordable healthcare.
___
[1] You might join me, sir, in poking around in the e-gutters of the Vast Whight-Wing Conspiracy during the next few days to see if many, or any, of the selfservative kiddies or, more likely, their Freelords an’ Kiddiemasters, detectably notice that Comrade Krystof is home on leave and has decided to come out against the VWhWC. I am inclined to guess that if they see the piece at all, they’ll ignore the by-line and assume it is only another dose of Krugman.
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