Your Abbreviated Pundit Round-up

Sunday punditry... and time for some lessons learned - or not.

Frank Rich:

The tsunami of populist rage coursing through America is bigger than Daschle’s overdue tax bill, bigger than John Thain’s trash can, bigger than any bailed-out C.E.O.’s bonus. It’s even bigger than the Obama phenomenon itself. It could maim the president’s best-laid plans and what remains of our economy if he doesn’t get in front of the mounting public anger.

Nicholas Kristof:

So could it be that the problem on Wall Street wasn’t subprime mortgages, but elevated testosterone?

Maureen Dowd: Face facts: Republicans cleaned Obama's clock this week.

Michael Hirsh: Was Keynes right? Who the hell knows? But maybe we're about to find out.

Paul Krugman: We're not going to find out. The centrists have screwed us.

Steven Mufson and Lori Montgomery: Well, whatever we do, time is of the essence.

National Journal: Bloggers and insiders think Obama is not damaged by his recent appointments.

Thomas Friedman: Let me explain, yet again, how to bring peace to the Middle East. Hello? Is this thing on?

Hugh Bailey on some local politicians who learned the wrong lessons from 2006:

No one needs to relive that [Lamont-Lieberman] campaign, but it's worth remembering what is was and was not about. People weren't mad at Lieberman because all his views didn't match their own; it was not an ideological purge of centrists; it did not prove there is no room for Iraq war supporters in the Democratic Party (there shouldn't be, but that's beside the point).

Lieberman was targeted and eventually lost his party's support because he refused to acknowledge his opponents had a point of view worth considering. He said people who disagreed with him were helping "the enemy" or "the terrorists." He took demagoguery to Dick Cheney-ish levels. And he used dishonest arguments to push his support for the war, all the while defaming his opponents as being insufficiently concerned with Americans' safety.

Lieberman's still around and so are a lot of his supporters. Let's see who forgives and remembers.