The Washington Post’s E. J. Dionne has weighed in with another of his measured, analytically rigorous, I’m-allergic-to-double-standard columns, this time on the debt ceiling. According to Dionne,
Starting this week, the talk in our nation’s capital will be dominated by whether or not Congress should raise the debt ceiling—as if we have any choice but to pay off our obligations. It will be a colossally foolish and self-destructive battle, another sign of how fanaticism and ideological obsession are rendering our country ungovernable.
Dionne had particularly harsh words for Marco Rubio, the Florida Senator who said:
The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that “the buck stops here.” Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.
Hold on. Wait a minute. I’m sorry; I’ve made a terrible mistake. These aren’t the words of Senator Marco Rubio; they’re the words of then-Senator Barack Obama, from 2006. Which raises this question: Do you recall the column by Dionne excoriating Obama and other Democrats for voting against raising the debt ceiling during the Bush presidency? That’s funny; neither do I. Which tells you much of what you need to know about Dionne these days.
