My relationship with the Washington Post went from alarm to dismay to shock to resignation during the Bush years. During the Clinton presidency, I saw the Post as an institutionally center-left organization. In many ways, it was far more measured than the New York Times, which went after Clinton for everything from Whitewater to Wen Ho Lee (and never sufficiently apologized). Things began to change dramatically during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. While the New York Times opposed the invasion in fairly uncompromising terms, the Post was a strong cheerleader. Both papers engaged in badly flawed reporting, but it was their editorial stances that were starkly distinct.
For quite some time I have seen the Post as an institutionally center-right institution, and editor Fred Hiatt as a tool of special corporate interests. So, it’s refreshing to see Hiatt call bullshit on the GOP’s Pledge for America.
IF REPUBLICANS are serious about governing responsibly, they have an odd way of showing it. And for politicians who purport to hate the deficit — odder still. The House Republicans’ “Pledge to America,” unveiled with fanfare Thursday at a Sterling hardware store, mixes irresponsible tax cuts with implausible spending caps and unspecified actions to control entitlement spending. The resulting concoction is a profile in cowardice…
…Sadly, the “Pledge” contains no credible plan to reduce this debt. On the contrary, it would increase the debt by $4 trillion — yes, trillion — by extending all the expiring Bush tax cuts and adding new ones, including a poorly conceived deduction for small businesses…
…What was this, the children’s hour?
I welcome the honest assessment. I mean, even Red State’s Erick Erikson called the Pledge “the dumbest thing to come out of Washington since George McClellan.” McClellan, you might remember, was Abraham Lincoln’s first, ineffectual, general during the Civil War. In a possible prelude to 2012, after Lincoln fired him, McClellan ran for president against Lincoln in 1864. Of course, General Petraeus was merely demoted, not fired, and he’s probably too proud to share a stage with Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum.
In any case, it’s good to see that the Post has no patience with the GOP’s stupid plan. Of course, tomorrow they will probably go back to pretending the opposition is a plausible alternative.
