Last June, I wrote:
Former NY Times Editor Bill Keller is the King of Flaccid Liberalism, most recently being deeply offended by Obama's embrace of the Buffett Rule, and comforting himself that "my hunch is that Romney will manage to shake off most of his extremist accouterments, because they never seemed to fit him." In other words, the Etch-a-Sketch strategy is just fine with Keller.
Well, Keller strikes again with an op-ed just posted in the Times. It's one thing for hacks at the Politico or Morning Joe to try to pin blame on the President for the Sequester. It's another for a former New York Times executive editor to write an op-ed titled
"Obama's Fault."
And yet, as reported by Steve Benen, Keller has just done that.
This is not a difficult situation to understand. The Republicans threatened default and to prevent that, the Dems agreed to the Sequester. The Republicans warned of the Sequester's danger, but have now said "no big deal" and let it happen.
And the unbelievably stupid, incredibly naive and reckless pundits say the situation is Obama's fault. It's yet another example of a pundit ignoring the facts -- that Obama has sought a "balanced" resolution (much as we here don't want it) , that the Republicans have put up a wall. That the Republicans are willing to crash the economy.
The very reason they get away with it is that "liberals" like Keller provide cover for the lunatics in the GOP. What is wrong with these people? They see a raging fire and a fireman with a hose that has been turned off by vandals, and they blame the fireman. Do they not realize they are aiding and abetting reckless nihlists who are looking for cover for their arson.
Seriously, what is wrong with Keller? Does he not realize that his column will be endlessly quoted by the likes of Fox News and Morning Joe and Limbaugh and will serve to make the Republicans more intransigent by providing liberal "cover" for the right wing crazies?
As Benen writes:
The bottom line remains the same: the president has played by the rules, accepting concessions, offering compromises, and negotiating in good faith. In the meantime, Republicans have been unyielding, condemning the very idea of compromise, threatening deliberate national harm, and walking away from overly generous offers that fall short of 100% of their demands.
Seriously, what is wrong with these people?