“I got in trouble talking about the Federal Reserve yesterday. I got lectured about that yesterday," – Rick Perry, after physically threatening the chairman of the Federal Reserve and calling him a near-traitor.
He sounds like a frat-boy being reprimanded by the dean. Even JPod isn't having it:
Yesterday, in refusing to apologize for what he said, Perry didn’t even suggest he’d been speaking lightly. He said instead that this — Fed policy, presumably — was something about which he’s passionate. That compounded the mistake. It stands to reason that if you’re looking to be the next president and you’re passionate about an issue, you take it with deadly seriousness, you don’t cheapen it. You address it as soberly as you can.
(But note JPod's classic post-modern right view that it is irrelevant whether the remark was indeed evil and wrong. All that matters is that it hurt Perry, therefore the GOP.) I'm with Larry Summers:
“This may be the least responsible statement in the modern history of president politics. While there is room for sharp debate over many economic issues, the economic thinking is primitive, the mention of treason is outrageous and the intimation of violence is abhorrent.”
Obama's response was, alas, milquetoast. Probably smart politics. But shouldn't the head of the executive branch say something when a leading politician physically threatens the Fed chairman and calls him a traitor? Because if these things are left unpunished, the violent rhetoric will only intensify.
The Dish 