My apologies to Tony!
From “The Blackmail Caucus,” Paul Krugman, NYT:
“[C]onsider the remarkable — in a bad way — editorial in which The Des Moines Register endorsed Mr. Romney. The paper acknowledged that Mr. Obama’s signature economic policy, the 2009 stimulus, was the right thing to do. It also acknowledged that Mr. Obama tried hard to reach out across the partisan divide, but was rebuffed.
“Yet it endorsed his opponent anyway, offering some half-hearted support for Romneynomics, but mainly asserting that Mr. Romney would be able to work with Democrats in a way that Mr. Obama has not been able to work with Republicans. Why? Well, the paper claims…that, in office, Mr. Romney would be far more centrist than anything he has said in the campaign would indicate. (And the notion that he has been lying all along is supposed to be a point in his favor?) But mostly it just takes it for granted that Democrats would be more reasonable.
“Would a Democratic Senate offer equally extreme opposition to a President Romney? No, it wouldn’t. So, yes, there is a case that ‘partisan gridlock’ would be less damaging if Mr. Romney won.
“But are we ready to become a country in which ‘Nice country you got here. Shame if something were to happen to it’ becomes a winning political argument? I hope not. … [A]rguing for Mr Romney on the grounds that he could get things done veers dangerously close to accepting protection-racket politics, which have no place in American life.” Emphasis added.
A RICO lawsuit against the GOP?!
Embattled Farmers 