Pundit Boxscore for Monday 10 January 2005

PARTISAN PUNDITRY 2004: If the final partisanship rankings for this year look familiar, it's not your imagination. Demonstrating extreme partisanship this year were Ann Coulter (82), Paul Krugman (77), Robert Scheer (71) and Molly Ivins (67); last year we had Coulter (81), Krugman (76), Scheer (73) and Ivins (73). Linda Chavez, Mona Charen and Cal Thomas were also repeat performers in the Top Ten. Democratic pundits took four of the first five positions, not surprising given their unlimited opportunities for criticism in a Republican-dominated government.

Despite that, Ann Coulter easily won her second consecutive partisanship title, mostly because of her relentlessly one-sided criticism of the Democratic Party. Her ratio of 70 negative references to Democrats for every positive reference (1058 to 15) is unprecedented in the three years of Lying in Ponds statistics. Ms. Coulter was simultaneously the most positive pundit toward George W. Bush and the most negative toward John Kerry. In addition to extreme partisanship, Ms. Coulter stands out because of her array of nasty personal attacks -- she referred to various Democratic presidential candidates as a "pacifist scaredy-cat", "crazier than a March hare", a "two-faced weasel", a "coward", a "cad and a gigolo", a "low-born poseur", a "poodle to rich women", and "boobs". In addition to partisanship and incivility, Ms. Coulter is a master of deceptive and irrational rhetoric.

Paul Krugman completed another year as a New York Times columnist, making it five full years of punditry without once finding a reason to write a column consisting mostly of substantive criticsm of any Democrat on any topic or substantive praise of any Republican on any topic. Although Mr. Krugman's utterly predictable criticism of Republicans is unsurpassed, his high ranking also depends on a careful protection of Democrats. He expressed a strong preference for Howard Dean and Wesley Clark, but once John Kerry took the lead in the race for the Democratic nomination, Mr. Krugman turned on a dime and was more favorable toward Mr. Kerry than any of our 33 pundits. He has carefully avoided any mention of Democratic scandals, adding disgraced former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey to a long list of names which must not be mentioned -- Marc Rich, Al Sharpton, Robert Torricelli, etc. Back in March, I wrote a five part series exploring various aspects of Paul Krugman's amazing record of extreme partisanship.

Robert Scheer, Molly Ivins and Joe Conason are each drearily reliable Democratic partisans. Mr. Scheer has a lengthy record of deception, but is less generous with praise for Democrats than the others and wrote a relatively nuanced assessment of Ronald Reagan. Ms. Ivins dresses up her partisan rhetoric with colorful language; she uses "damn" and "hell" more than any other columnist. Mr. Conason was new to Lying in Ponds this year; he stands out for his almost Krugmanian level of reverence for Democrats.

Linda Chavez and Charles Krauthammer were drearily reliable Republican partisans this year, although they were less partisan last year. Ms. Chavez was the second most positive toward George W. Bush, trailing only Ann Coulter. Mr. Krauthammer has been busy building a record of manipulating quotes and questioning the sanity of his political opponents.