After watching this twice, I’m inclined to call it one of the most perfect bits of self-parody that I’ve ever seen. The smugness, the laziness of the analysis — this would qualify as mindless, paint-by-numbers received wisdom even on a lefty blog — and of course the hypocrisy, from Heilemann moronically barking about the loaded meaning of a word he himself has used numerous times to Klein actually stooping to use a charge as loathed by free-speech advocates as sedition to indict Beck and Palin. This one’s got it all. Had Beck or Palin dropped the S-bomb on some lefty populist, it would be a five-alarm, all-hands-on-deck, left-wing media furor. Yet here’s Joe Klein, tossing it out almost playfully — and not for the first time — on Tingles’s weekly middlebrow talking points showcase, and no one bats an eye. What does ego look like when it’s unchecked by even the slightest shred of self-awareness? You’re about to find out. Click the image to watch.
