I Always Liked E.J.

E.J. Dionne shows his highness Broder and Joe Klein how to write like a pundit (via Froomkin):

In his Washington Post op-ed column today, E. J. Dionne Jr. points fingers at some of his journalistic colleagues (could they include The Post's Dan Balz and David S. Broder?) who "seem eager to declare that 'the system' has come down with some dread disease, to proclaim that an ideological 'center' blessed by the heavens no longer exists, and woe unto us. . . .

"Is Washington a mess? In many ways it is. The simplest explanation has to do with some bad choices made by President Bush. He started a misguided war that is now sapping his influence; he has treated Democrats as if they were infected with tuberculosis and Republicans in Congress as if they were his valets. No wonder he's having trouble pushing through a bill whose main opponents are his own ideological allies.

"Maybe you would place blame elsewhere. But please identify some real people or real political forces and not just some faceless entity that you call the system. Please be specific, bearing in mind that when hypochondriacs misdiagnose vague ailments they don't have, they often miss the real ones."

Thank you.

As I've written before. When I was a working psychotherapist you could always tell when we had a serious borderline or narcissistic personality disorder in the office. How? Not by the personal preening, flashy clothes, or faux charm. No. We could tell because everyone else in the office would start fighting with each other!