Last week, I posted a quote by economist Arnold Kling where he compared the stimulus package to a gang of thugs ransacking his house. I pulled — and sourced — the quote directly from the Heritage Foundation’s website. Because of pathologies and machinations too absurd to dignify with an explanation, several liberal bloggers seized on the quote to call Kling a racist. Apparently, if you use the American Prospect’s secret decoder ring, thug = black president. Whatever.

The trouble is that the Heritage Foundation both truncated the quote and threw in some erroneous words; Kling also compared Paulson’s actions regarding TARP to thuggery and his equal-oportunity animus for free-spending white Treasury secretaries seems to absolve him of the racism charge, absurd as it was to begin with.

Several people have pointed this error out already, as has Heritage (replete with apology) on the link sourced in my post. But since I’m still getting ridiculous emails, consider this my part to clear Kling’s good name. I would also say that ANYONE who would randomly compare a respectable scholar to a Klansman without doing the slightest bit of investigation first — or resorts to the needless politicization of language to potentially libel someone — needs to take a long look in the mirror and ask themselves whether they’re helping the political discourse and, ultimately, their own repuation.