Real pundits don't think

I'm on a heavy work schedule and have little time to blog this morning, so let me point you to Glenn Greenwald's must read post. Within the frame of Benjamin Wittes con job in The New Republic, Glenn lays out the cardinal rule of the Beltway's insider think tank pundits. Thou shalt use lofty language that says nothing of substance but serves to marginalize sustantive debate.

Really do read the whole thing but here's my favorite quote.

This really illustrates the core of why our pundit class and Beltway opinion-making mechanisms are so corrupt and worthless, but also so destructive. The whole point -- the only objective -- of Wittes' article, and of columns and articles from most of our establishment pundits, is to establish their own special place of wisdom and insight. To achieve that, they reduce all political matters to nothing more than grand intellectual puzzles, and equate any real beliefs with primitive ignorance. That is what they mean by heinous, lowly "partisanship" -- genuine political convictions.

I think that sums up the core of what ails our political discourse today. Via a compliant press eager to curry insider status, these oh so lofty, bought off scholars have been elevated to a position of intellectal authority they don't deserve, based solely on their loyalty to the White House and a level of disdain for the hoi polloi that mirrors the Great Decider's own.

It's sad really. I'm old enough to remember when pundits cared more about building their academic creds based on thoughtful analysis than White House dinner invites. Little wonder our country is in such a mess when our leading "thinkers" apparently care more about their access to presidential cocktail weenies than they do about reasonable debate.