On Monday, Ron Fournier, the Senior Political Columnist and Editorial Director over at the
National Journal, once again broke out his old word generator and cranked out his latest pious mewlings about the need for bipartisanship in Washington—which generally translates into "why won't Obama lead?!?"—and included
this remarkably stupid bit of punditry:
On health care, we needed a market-driven plan that decreases the percentage of uninsured Americans without convoluting the U.S. health care system. Just such a plan sprang out of conservative think tanks and was tested by a GOP governor in Massachusetts, Mitt Romney.
In other words, Mr. Fournier was
sobbing that Democrats should have passed Obamacare instead of passing Obamacare.
Naturally, he was mocked and derided from all quarters for that idiocy, and on Tuesday, Mr. National Journal struck back at his critics:
I should have connected the dots. I shorthanded the background with a sarcastic, sloppy transition. On the other hand, Yglesias and fellow liberal pundits, most of whom have a history of comparing notes and coordinating attacks with the White House, could have simply asked me to clarify the passage.
Well, you've got us there, Ron. All the ridicule and criticism of your worn out load of codswallop was a well-coordinated, behind-the-scenes plot by the White House and the liberals. Busted.
So let's rip back the veil and reveal how it all went down in the smoky back rooms of Daily Kos ...
On Monday morning, the National Journal sends a tweet, linking to the column. A short time later, liberal pundit Joan McCarter says to me, "God. Fournier. Could he really have not been paying attention, at all, for the last four years?" I reply, "Joan, it's Fournier, of course he wasn't ... slap the shit out of him." To which she responds, "Gladly."
And there you have it. The entire plot, the planning, the coordinating, the orders from the White House on messaging ... the whole thing. Because it couldn't just be that Ron Fournier was peddling his usual bullshit bipartisan fetishism and was called out on it.