Oh cry me a freaking river please. Is anyone else as tired as I am of Matt Dowd still pretending that if President Obama were just a little bit nicer to Republicans that it would help to "lower the vitriol" in Washington? Does he think we've all been asleep for the last five years?
Thankfully, Paul Krugman was there to call B.S. on Dowd and inject a dose of reality back into the conversation on This Week:
DOWD: To me, this is a perfect example of what's gone wrong in Washington. I think Samantha Power is very competent and very qualified. I think Ambassador Rice is very competent and very qualified. But just because you can appoint somebody doesn't mean you should appoint somebody. And to me, this is basically at a time when everybody says we need to lower the bitterness, and lower the vitriol and bring Washington and figure out a way to get all of this screaming and yelling, he basically sticks a stick in the eye of many Republicans and says, oh by the way, the people that you've been castigating, the people that you don't trust I'm going to put in these two key positions.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But he puts them in a White House position -- I mean, he puts her in a White House position, not a senate confirmable position, that would have been the in your face move.
DOWD: No, this is even more in your face, George, I think. It basically it says we're not even going to let you approve this. We're going to put them now in charge of an agency that as we've learned in the last few days...
KRUGMAN: No, you can alternatively view this as I will not be bullied. You guys tore this person up for no good reason and I'm going to show that that doesn't actually work.
DOWD: But I actually think strength comes from actually going to try to reach over to the other side and try to get something done.
KRUGMAN: Boy, has this guy has reached. He has reached and reached and reached...
DOWD: Not really.
KRUGMAN: Had all his fingers bitten off at this point in his life.
