Lyndon Johnson supposedly said about the retention of J. Edgar Hoover as Director of the FBI that it was better to have him pissing out than pissing in. (I am paraphrasing.) This has special meaning for what we see in the writings of Frank Rich, Tom Friedman, Joseph Stiglitz, Tom Friedman, Maureen Dowd, and especially Paul Krugman. Follow me over the break.
Paul Krugman returned from Europe with dark circles under his eyes and pissing in full stream inward onto the Obama administration.
Frank Rich blasted Obama with equal urinary strength while all the while seeming to say that he did not want the outcome to be a Republican takeover. All the while he is writing his brilliant prose, there is no sense that he knows a damn thing about the underlying fault zones in the financial system, world-wide. He is talking about addressing populist rage, and that is his focus.
Joseph Stiglitz, like Krugman, sits on his high throne, and pontificates. There is no sense that he wants to get down where it is dirty and smelly where Obama has to be, he and the poor Geithner that nobody understands exactly what he is doing, or wants to.
Take Tom Friedman. He cheerleaded us into the Iraq war, and yet he has been able to parade himself as the great savior of the universe. Where does he get his moral authority? He helped create this financial problem. So he says, he thinks we have no one who can inspire us. Where is he? Where has he been? Has he been paying any attention to Obama's inspirational qualities? No, he is too busy pissing in.
Maureen Dowd has her own charms, but she is basically fixated on male and female prowess. I don't think she is qualified to deal with the enormous, mind-boggling complexities that Obama is facing at the beginning of his administration.
What I see in all these writers is an amorphous splash of discontent and fear. What I wish I saw in them is a boots on the ground, and how can I help you attitude. In one of them, namely Friedman, I'd like to see a little repentance and humility that he has richly earned. As for Rich, he ought to be more knowledgeable about the underlying complexities of a world-wide collapse that goes deeper than populous outrage. Krugman and Stiglitz are inexcusable. They could easily insert themselves right square into the ring of the decision making. They could get right into the inner circle. But no. There are the thrones from their prestigious work that must be constantly shined to a high glint. No dirty hands work. No getting down into the muck where problems can actually be seen up close and possibly solved. I am deeply disappointed in all of them. This is a time of international crisis They can do better than this pissing-in behavior.