In an article for the print magazine, I made a list of 12 avoidable political errors that Republicans made in the last 12 years. Ezra Klein commented on my article yesterday, making two major and one minor criticism.

The minor criticism is his dismissal of my claim that the Bush administration, and Republicans generally, would be better off if Dick Cheney had spoken in public more. Klein writes, “[W]hat’s with the conservative belief that this guy is popular?” Actually, my article notes that “he is now an extremely unpopular figure.” My point is that his secretiveness and hostility to the press have contributed to his extreme unpopularity. It has abetted a sinister, conspiratorial view of him. It may be that a less reticent Cheney would still be unpopular–but my guess is that he would not be quite as low in the polls as he is now.

Klein’s first major criticism is that I downplay Bush’s partisanship. The whole which-side-is-meaner discussion is one I find tedious, so I’m going to sidestep it. My point was that the public did not turn against Bush because he was too slashingly partisan, although a partisan legislative strategy may have had indirect effects that hurt him. I’m not sure Klein really disagrees with me about that, even if we disagree on the question of the relative partisanship of Clinton’s presidency and Bush’s (along with related questions such as the propriety of Bush’s handling of the politics of national security in the run-up to the 2002 elections).

Second, Klein argues that my list of Republican mistakes ends up covering “everything the Republican party did over the past few years.” He adds, ” I agree that it all ranged from criminally unjust to politically stupid to substantively bankrupt, but that’s why I’m not a Republican, and don’t write for The National Review” (emphasis his). I find this puzzling. I’m supposed to give up my job because I think Bush should have made his proposal for a standard deduction in health care and passed a minimum-wage increase in 2006 instead of 2007? Because I think it was a mistake to appoint Patrick Fitzgerald? Because I think Rumsfeld should have been let go a few months before he was?

Anyway, my list did not include “everything the Republican party did over the past few years.” Just off the top of my head, I would mention the nomination and confirmation of two Supreme Court justices, the enactment of health savings accounts, and the reduction of taxes and the improvement of the tax structure as policies which I approved. And my list of political mistakes did not include the toppling of the Taliban and of Saddam Hussein, which were also pretty big initiatives.