Two, Two, Two Papers In One!

Ken Shepherd of Newsbusters says he “Caught this in the Washington Post’s ‘Letters to the Editor’ section today”:

Good on the Post for printing this letter from a reader who caught liberal columnist E.J. Dionne in the act of hypocrisy:

E.J. Dionne Jr. [“Democratic fratricide,” op-ed, Dec. 17] views the Senate as a “dysfunctional and undemocratic partisan hothouse,” presumably because of the ability of 41 senators to prevent a bill from coming to a final vote.

Mr. Dionne has not always taken such a dim view of undemocratic procedures, however.

In 2003, he heartily approved of Democratic obstruction of two judicial nominations by President Bush: “The filibuster is the only way to prevent the president from creating a federal judiciary dominated by ideologues of his own persuasion, appointed to satisfy his political base” [“Order and the Courts,” op-ed, May 9].

If a filibuster was justified merely to keep two conservatives off the bench, why should it not be used by senators who believe that the health-care bill would be a disaster for the country?

Richard L. Lobb, Fairfax

And of course, as we noted last week, up at the other end of the Northeast Corridor, “A Krugman Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand.”