About
	Contact Us
	Articles
	Topic Index
	Reports
	Quotes
	On the Web
	Links
	TW Tracker
	Support

Columnists

• November 18 -- "Crusted-Nut-Bar Dick Cheney"
Maureen Dowd isn't moving on: "President Bush is purging the naysayers who tried to temper crusted-nut-bar Dick Cheney and the neocon crazies on Iraq."

• November 16 -- Maureen Feeling Mobbed by "Vengeful" Bushies
Maureen Dowd hasn't quite gotten over Bush's victory: "I'm getting more the feel of a vengeful mob -- revved up by rectitude -- running around with torches and hatchets after heathens and pagans and infidels."

• November 8 -- No More Clarence Thomases!
Some advice for Democrats.

• November 8 -- About That "Stagnant Economy"…
How quickly things can turn around in two days.

• November 5 -- Krugman Celebrates Voters -- Before the Election, Anyway
Columnist Paul Krugman sounds bereft: "President Bush isn't a conservative. He's a radical -- the leader of a coalition that deeply dislikes America as it is….thanks to a heavy turnout by evangelical Christians, Mr. Bush has four more years to advance that radical agenda." But just last week he was smitten with the dignity of voting and "choked up" over the heavy turnout.

• November 2 -- Florida's Black Voters "Intimidated" by Long Lines?
Paul Krugman works in nasty accusations about Republican voter suppression of minorities in Florida: "Over the weekend, people in some polling places had to stand in line for four, five, even six hours, often in the hot sun. Some of them -- African-Americans in particular -- surely suspected that those lines were so long because officials wanted to make it hard for them to vote."

• October 28 -- Safire Throws Waters on "Explosives" Story
Times columnists William Safire casts some doubt on the origins of the paper's "explosives" story: "I'm a little suspicious of any last-minute charge. First of all, we have to find out, is this true. Second, why, if we knew about it or if it was known for 18 months since it began, why did it suddenly surface the last week of the election campaign. And third, what was the motive of whoever leaked it."

• October 25 -- Bush, the One-Syllable Man
Roger Cohen on Bush's stump speech: "It was a typical line from a president who likes words of one syllable."

• October 22 -- Over 300 Electoral Votes for Kerry, Says Krugman
Kerry's on track for a convincing Electoral College victory, says Paul Krugman.

• October 20 -- A Ridiculous Rant on Bush's "Outright Assault" on the Press
Columnist Frank Rich argues the Bush administration is engaging in a scary, Nixonian type campaign of press intimidation and gives ten examples -- none of which hold up.

• October 14 -- Post-Vacation Tom Friedman, Rested and Rabid After Bush
Columnist Thomas Friedman, rested and rabid after his vacation: "By exploiting the emotions around 9/11, Mr. Bush took a far-right agenda on taxes, the environment and social issues -- for which he had no electoral mandate -- and drove it into a 9/12 world. In doing so, Mr. Bush made himself the most divisive and polarizing president in modern history."

• September 22 -- "Compelling" Anti-Bush Charges vs. "Unsubstantiated" Swifties
Nicholas Kristof finds the Bush National Guard accusations compelling, but turns his nose up at the "unsubstantiated" Swift Boat vets.

• September 13 -- Safire Hails the Blogosphere
William Safire gives a hat tip to Internet bloggers who first uncovered evidence suggesting memos that aired on "60 Minutes" were forged.

• September 13 -- Bush to Blame for Beslan Massacre?
Does Bush share responsibility for the killings of schoolchildren in Chechnya?

• September 9 -- Taking Cheney Far Out of Context, Again
Katharine Seelye and Ralph Blumenthal treat seriously the new controversy over Bush's Vietnam service--quite a change from how the Times treated the Swift Boat Veterans.

• September 7 -- Dowd Defends Times Against Bush's Quote "Distortion"
Maureen Dowd, of all people, rises to defend the historical honor of her paper by accusing George Bush in his acceptance speech of distorting words from a Times column penned in 1946. Dowd's defense is rather ironic, considering her own history of distorting quotes.

• August 19 -- More Cheap Shots at Gun Owners from Kristof
Nicholas Kristof resorts to cheap, tiresome psychoanalyzing of gun-owners as self-doubting men who fire guns to make themselves feel more macho: "Assault weapons aren't necessary for any kind of hunting or target shooting, but they're popular because they can transform a suburban Walter Mitty into Rambo, for a lot less money than a Hummer."

• August 16 -- Maureen Dowd, Sensitive as Ever
Maureen Dowd on Bush and stem cells: “…they've dragged poor Laura Bush out to go, for this, what Lee Atwater used to call the extra-chromosome conservatives."

• August 12 -- "Dowdworld," Starring Dick Cheney as Darth Vader
Maureen Dowd, promoting her new book, denies her liberal bent and relates a wacky Star Wars analogy starring Dick Cheney as Darth Vader.

• August 10 -- Bush-Hating Krugman: "It Scares Me Sometimes How Blind People Are."
Times columnist (and professional Bush-basher) Paul Krugman gives interviews to a couple of left-wing groups--and free reign to his Bush hate.

• August 9 -- Maureen Dowd, on Another Planet
Maureen Dowd, promoting "Bushworld," her new collection of columns: "…what an astonishing story it is that a group, a small group of neo-cons who had never been to war themselves, would take over the entire apparatus of the federal government and hijack the war on terror."

• July 30 -- Krugman Sees Pro-Bush Media Bias
Paul Krugman accuses the media of pro-Bush bias: "…we're supposed to dislike Mr. Kerry simply because he's wealthy (and not notice that his opponent is, too). Republicans, of all people, are practicing the politics of envy, and the media obediently go along."

• July 19 -- "Ethnic Cleansing Celebrated As the Height of Piety"
Nicholas Kristof's column is slightly less offensive than its title ("Jesus and Jihad") but it's close: "No, I don't think the readers of [the Christian apocalyptic novel] 'Glorious Appearing' will ram planes into buildings. But we did imprison thousands of Muslims here and abroad after 9/11, and ordinary Americans joined in the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in part because of a lack of empathy for the prisoners."

• July 15 -- Bill Maher, Groupthink Victim
The "Bill-Maher-Was-Fired-for-Saying-Terrorists-Weren't-Cowards" myth, once again.

• July 2 -- Moore Krugman?
Paul Krugman, who is sounding more and more Michael Moore-like, becomes the second Times columnist in two days to praise "Fahrenheit 9/11."

• July 1 -- Michael Moore, "Genuine Son of the U.S. Working Class."
Socialist Barbara Ehrenreich's debut NYT column features Michael Moore: "But no one can miss the fact that he's a genuine son of the U.S. working class--of a Flint autoworker, in fact--because it's built right into his 'branding,' along with flannel shirts and baseball caps…an invulnerable target for the customary assault weapon of the right." Ehrenreich may have been suckered by Moore's populist shtick, but less starry-eyed writers have long seen through it.

• June 30 -- Come Back, Tom Friedman: All's Forgiven
The Times has found a substitute for columnist Thomas Friedman, who's taking a sabbatical. Editorial page editor Gail Collins calls Barbara Ehrenreich a "brilliant social critic, historian and political commentator." Collins forgot to mention "and zealous socialist."

• June 28 -- Criticizing Michael Moore: As Phony as John Ashcroft
Arts editor and columnist Frank Rich criticizes Michael Moore, but only to compare him to John Ashcroft.

• June 21 -- Safire vs. The Times
Columnist William Safire opens with a broadside against the Times' misleading front-page treatment of the 9-11 report, and then takes on the editorial page.

• June 8 -- How Reagan Made "Denial of Compassion" Respectable
Columnist Clyde Haberman claims "it does Ronald Reagan no dishonor to look back at his presidency with a clear eye." For Haberman, that means rehashing quotes from liberal Democrats lambasting Reagan's cuts in aid to the city. Haberman gives Mario Cuomo the last word: "The results made the denial of compassion respectable."

• June 8 -- Using and Abusing Reagan's Memory, Part II
Paul Krugman finds something nice to say about Ronald Reagan.

• June 1 -- Frank Rich's Pornographic Hypocrisy
Editor Frank Rich contemptuously dismisses conservatives who dare link the prisoner abuse of Abu Ghraib to pornography: "The hypocrisy of those pushing this line knows few bounds." Yet the left-wing essayist Susan Sontag, so admired by Rich, made precisely the same argument in the cover story of the NYT magazine.

• May 28 -- Paul Krugman Takes on "Tyranny of Evenhandedness"
Paul Krugman's latest column is a broadside against the "tyranny of evenhandedness" that makes liberal journalists say nice things about conservatives.

• May 28 -- Sharon and Arafat, "Separated at Birth"
Columnist Nicholas Kristof lumps "right-wing jingoist" Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in with Yasir Arafat, snarling that both men share "a bloodstained obduracy, suggesting that they might as well have been twins separated at birth."

• May 24 -- Kristof's Anti-War "Scream" Fest
Nicholas Kristof sticks it to Bush and Rumsfeld: "Donald Rumsfeld has presided over the most foolish conflict since the War of Jenkins' Ear in the 18th century, and he is at the top of a military force that tortured prisoners. " Then he lashes out at the "neo-con ideologues who screamed for war."

• May 24 -- Rich Pets Michael Moore's "Goat"
Frank Rich praises left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9-11," taking Moore's bad-faith assumptions on faith and chortling over Moore's cheap-shot techniques that make Bushies look dumb.

• May 19 -- Sarin? So What
An editorial soft-pedals the finding of deadly sarin gas in Iraq and pooh-poohs any possibility that it confirms Allied fears of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction: "If laboratory tests confirm the presence of sarin, that finding may not tell us much about whether Saddam Hussein retained a hidden chemical arsenal after supposedly destroying it." Columnist William Safire thinks differently.

• May 17 -- Except for the "Killing U.S. Soldiers" Part, That Is
"Tyranny Of the Minorities," Thomas Friedman's Sunday column, opens on this provocative note.

• May 17 -- Jessica Lynch Gone Bad
First it was Abu Ghraib and My Lai: Now Frank Rich is comparing Abu Ghraib abuser Lynndie England to rescued POW Jessica Lynch and warns of "our country's descent into the gulag."

• May 11 -- Abu Ghraib = My Lai, Again
Now it's Krugman's turn.

• April 16 -- Iraq Worse Than Vietnam; Budget-Balancing LBJ?
Paul Krugman doesn't think Iraq is Vietnam--in some ways, it's worse. Plus, budget-balancing LBJ?

• March 29 -- Tom Friedman's Bipartisan Fantasy
The Times columnist is dreaming of a Kerry-McCain ticket.

• March 22 -- Rich Liberal Triteness
Frank Rich describes “one of the most hysterical outbreaks of Puritanism in recent, even not-so-recent, American history” and administers another beating to “The Passion.”

• March 3 -- Marriage Defenders and the Return of George Wallace, Take 2
Another day, another Times columnist conflating traditional marriage supporters with anti-black racists.

• February 13 -- Bush's "Cult of Personality"
Krugman asks: What the heck is wrong with you people?

• February 4 -- Bush's "Threats To Our Way of Life"
Nicholas Kristof claims Bush fiscal policy poses the real threat to the American way of life and applauds the fiscal conservatism of Bill Clinton.

• February 2 -- The Republican's "Shameful Coalition"
Columnist Thomas Friedman take on the 2004 campaign is chock full of "libertarian nuts" and other limited-government flakes.

• January 26 -- Another Vietnam Rerun from Frank Rich
Is Iraq another Vietnam? Frank Rich sees parallels--and brings up the "imminent threat" canard to boot.

• January 20 -- The "Sinister" Judge Pickering
Paul Krugman goes even further than the Times editorial page in linking Judge Charles Pickering with racism.

• January 7 -- Jesus Christ, Big-Government Liberal
Nicholas Kristof takes Cheney, Dean and Bush to task for abuse and ignorance of religion--then cites Jesus to argue against Bush's tax cuts.

• January 2 -- Krugman Warns Dems: Don't Be Mean to Dean
Columnist Krugman's pro-Dean "advice" to Democrats has the clammy feel of an indoctrination session: "First, while it's O.K. for a candidate to say he's more electable than his rival, someone who really cares about ousting Mr. Bush shouldn't pre-emptively surrender the cause by claiming that his rival has no chance….More important, a Democrat shouldn't say anything that could be construed as a statement that Mr. Bush is preferable to his rival." Krugman doesn't bring up actions by Dean himself that strike some Democrats as disloyal.

• December 29 -- Shut Up, Krugman Explained
In the spirit of holiday generosity, columnist Paul Krugman deigns to give reporters something he clearly places premium value on--his opinion: "President Bush has turned this country sharply to the right, and this election will determine whether the right's takeover is complete. But will the coverage of the election reflect its seriousness? Toward that end, I hereby propose some rules for 2004 political reporting."

• December 16 -- The First Refuge of a Scoundrel
Accusing Republicans of slandering Democrats as unpatriotic is one of Paul Krugman's favorite pieces of anti-conservative boilerplate, and his latest attempt is particularly strained.

• December 12 -- Krugman's Latest Conspiracy Refuted--by the Times
Paul Krugman goes conspiratorial about Bush's decision to exclude countries who opposed the Iraq war from the rebuilding process: "Yes, Halliburton is profiteering in Iraq--will apologists finally concede the point, now that a Pentagon audit finds overcharging?" That's a reference to the subject of Times lead story--but the story disputes Krugman's claim.

• November 24 -- Krugman's Cover Story
David Kirkpatrick weighs in on the shockingly strident cover art gracing the British edition of Paul Krugman's collection of anti-Bush columns: "...the British book jacket bears caricatures of President Bush as Frankenstein-like and Vice President Dick Cheney with a Hitler mustache."

• November 20 -- Iraqi Women Suffering Since Hussein Gone
Nicholas Kristof finds more downside to the liberation of Iraq: " A new report by the U.N. Population Fund offers a devastating portrait of the plight of Iraqi women since the war." Yet the current war isn't even mentioned directly in the actual report.

• November 4 -- Krugman Cuts off Nethercutt
Columnist Paul Krugman is the latest to pass along a skewed quote from Republican Rep. George Nethercutt.

• October 30 -- Bush's "Radical Conservatism" a Problem in Iraq
Pro-war columnist Thomas Friedman wonders if Bush can succeed in Iraq, given his radical conservatism.

• October 30 -- Dowdy Old Anti-War Talking Points
Columnist Maureen Dowd stumbles through the liberal anti-war litany.

• October 17 -- Maureen Dowd's "Shameless" PR Campaign
Ever since Maureen Dowd's May 14 column (when she used an ellipses to reverse the plain meaning of a Bush quote on Al Qaeda), Web-watchers are reading closely between her lines. Is a correction in order again on her latest bit of Bush-bashing?

• October 14 -- Bush's Forbidden Love?
Paul Krugman outlines his paranoid view of Republicans: "They've decided that the way to win is to give Grover Norquist and the Heritage Foundation and John Ashcroft whatever they want." Also: "Can you imagine the Bush family allowing some member to marry a liberal Democrat?"

• August 22 -- Krugman the Inexplicable
Paul Krugman’s “Conan The Deceiver” tries to defend California Gov. Gray Davis: “Although news reports continue, inexplicably, to talk about a $38 billion deficit, the projected gap for next year is only $8 billion.” It’s not “inexplicable.” It’s in the governor’s own budget for 2003-2004, and Davis said the same thing months ago.

• August 13 -- Gen. Clark Chides Krugman’s Faulty Quote
Gen. Wesley Clark chides columnist Paul Krugman for inaccurately quoting him regarding a call he received urging him to link 9-11 to Saddam Hussein: “No one from the White House asked me to link Saddam Hussein to Sept. 11.”

• August 12 -- Randy Cohen’s Continuing Class War
The Times ethics columnist wastes no opportunity to stoke class war: “What rankles here is not your vulgar display of wealth. These days, many people are more apt to envy the rich than to throw snowballs at their top hats (unfortunately, in my view).”

• July 25 -- Conservative Columnist Joins the Times