Check out Russell Baker’s paean to Paul Krugman in the current (11/6/03) New York Review of Elite Lefties (not yet up in

digital form). Russ twice goes into a swoon at Paul’s “courage” in

writing anti-Bush stuff right after 9/11. Paul is, says Russ, “as

mainstream as it gets.” (For a translation of “mainstream,” see my recent “Devil’s Dictionary.” )

Paul is, Russ wants us to know, brilliant, perceptive, fearless… George

W. Bush is, of course, either a blundering moron being used as a front man

by sinister “corporate interests,” or an evil Mephistophelian genius

ruthlessly carrying out a “right-wing revolution,” depending on which

paragraph you are reading. This is a little pure crystal of contemporary

liberal hysteria. Warning: if you plan on reading the whole thing, have a

barf bag close at hand.