James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal's opinion section calls Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne "Baghdad Bob" for fun. On September 9, as Taranto mocked Dionne's Strobe-Talbott-on-the-Cold-War routine on the War on Terror (after all that U.S. vigilance, there was never a threat). Then he turned to the special election to replace Congressman Anthony Weiner in New York's Ninth District, where Democrat David Weprin scandalized the locals with a "terrorist-y" ad of a jet menacing the New York skyline. Taranto joked: "But don't worry. If Weprin loses next week, we're sure Baghdad Bob will be ready to explain why it's really a triumph for liberalism."
Incredibly, Dionne did exactly that, writing that the NY-9 victory would lead to overconfidence, no confrontation with the ruinous Tea Party, and a Rick Perry candidacy that never collides with the reasonable middle:
The Republican triumph in a New York City district....will aggravate the party's overconfidence and prevent a showdown with the Tea Party....The result tells us what we already knew, not more. Yet if conservatives see New York's 9th as further evidence that Obama is a pushover, Rick Perry -- if he doesn't self-destruct -- will be able to tell them he is the guy who can destroy the Great Society, the New Deal and the Progressive Era with one decisive blow. And no establishment will be there to stop him.
On NPR's All Things Considered Friday night, Dionne acknowledged the Weiner-seat defeat was a “warning sign,” but was still eager to push the Tea Party’s-ruining-the-GOP line. NPR helped him out, as the host asked if he could please underline the liberal claim that recent debate-crowd cheers show a deeply debased Republican base:
MELISSA BLOCK: E.J., I want to ask you about a moment in the debate on Monday. There were cheers from the audience when the prospect was raised: Do you let someone without health insurance die? And we may remember there was a moment during an earlier debate when the fact was raised that Rick Perry had overseen more than 230 executions as governor, there was big applause for that. Would do you make of that?
DIONNE: I think it was deeply disturbing. I've been struck by the number of right-to-lifers, sort of right to life liberals have said, wait a minute: this is supposed to be a pro-life party and first they cheer for the death penalty - this isn't about supporting the death penalty, this is cheering - and then some of those cheers for the idea of letting a person die. I think this is very dangerous for the Republicans. I don't know how many people actually watched that debate, but the Tea Party has not improved its image at all. And I think it's beginning to taint the image of the Republican Party.
