KRUGMAN LOSES IT

Paul Krugman’s now made the last step toward becoming a bona fide left-wing paranoiac. His column today, in which he endorses David Brock, and portrays all conservative criticism of the Clinton administration or indeed of any liberal figure as part of a plutocratic-funded smear machine is loopy enough. Has he read his own paper’s editorials criticizing Clinton’s Whitewater conduct? But arguing that his own Enron mess was concocted by the same smear machine is simply deranged. The fact of Krugman’s $50,000 Enron sweet-heart deal was reported first not by the Washington Times, but by the New York Times, that well-known organ of the right-wing conspiracy. This site certainly helped bring this fact to others’ attention. I wish I were the beneficiary of vast amounts of right-wing scandal money, but Krugman will have to accept that I have yet to receive one personal dollar from writing for this site for eighteen months and have zero plutocrats (you know my email address if you want to shower cash on the site, guys), except the generous support of hundreds of modest donors, all of whom are promptly disclosed. This site, allegedly a tool of vast right-wing moneyed interests, also broke the story of Bill Kristol’s $50,000 “fee,” as well as reporting on Larry Kudlow’s, Peggy Noonan’s and Irwin Stelzer’s easy Enron money. Moreover, the only way in which the issue of bought-and-paid-for pundits could be raised in the New York Times was by the left-wing site, TomPaine.com, by buying an ad on Krugman’s own op-ed page. The Times’ media reporters – alone in the national media – wouldn’t touch the pundit scandal as a separate, important part of the Enron story. Hmmm. So much for a right-wing conspiracy. Krugman knows this, of course. But rather than reflecting on some of the conflicts of interest his corporate buck-raking has generated, he prefers to disappear down the sink-hole of conspiracy theories, paranoid tales of right-wing money, and the usual Manichean self-righteousness of the hard left. It’s a shame. One day, he’ll start thinking and writing intelligently about economics. Until then, he’s the one who increasingly seems to be blowing smoke.