Frank Rich Takes the Lead
Last year, Paul Krugman lost the Democratic partisanship championship to Molly Ivins after four winning years (2002-2005). Now Frank Rich has inched past Mr. Krugman in the 2007 rankings, on the strength of his nearly non-stop anti-Bush administration screeds, averaging over 30 negative Republican references per column (965 in only 31 columns). In the past, I used to praise his willingness to offer sharp criticism of Democrats, but this year his occasional criticism of Hillary Clinton has been more than offset by lots of praise for Barack Obama, John and Elizabeth Edwards, Jim Webb, Henry Waxman, etc. Maybe he’ll step up his criticism as the presidential race heats up toward the end of the year.
But it surely must be a sign of partisanship when a pundit’s most frequent positive references to the opposite party are to dead people. Ann Coulter’s most frequent positive opposite references this year are to FDR (The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat). Paul Krugman’s are to Ronald Reagan, and Frank Rich’s top two are Gerald Ford and Reagan (the only good Republican is a dead Republican).
