Picking them off one bozo at a time...let's add Kristol to that list...what puzzles me though is who he thinks will believe that he "knew anything" about any of the other stuff he pontificated on? It doesn't seem to stop many of them both left and right...really an easy job if you just pick up the talking points each morning...

"I confess to be one of those people who hate math." That is Richard Cohen in this famous column: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/02/15/BL2006021501989.html
It is all I could think of when reading about how much he hates all this policy talk, because what is policy but numbers? Better columnists please.

A few years ago, Cohen had a column where he didn't see any value in teaching algebra, since he himself never used it. He was actually proud that besides flunking algebra, he doesn't understand math in general. His claimed that his typing class was the best class he ever took, apparently not understanding the difference between the mechanics of typing and actually having anything interesting to say.

Yeah, you know, like all that paying attention and stuff really cuts into how much time he can sit at his desk playing World of Warcraft, you know?

/snarkety snark snark

Shorter Dicky: No fool like an old fool.

From the desk of Richard Cohen:

WTF do I need to interview The Chosen One? Or become informed?

To paraphrase from 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre' - "Facts! We don't need no stinking facts!" Facts are so damn confusing! And they get in the way of my beliefs. As a republican shrill, my beliefs are much more important than any stinking facts!

It's got to be that Cohen has dirty pictures on someone high up at the Washington Post. I mean, if they just fired the dude, could there possibly be ANYONE who was actually angered by this?

I suppose he probably has lots of friends who might stick up for him, but I doubt even they find his columns to be must-read material. If anything, I'm sure they'd rather he write his opinions in the newspaper, so they can all claim that they already read his column and didn't need to hear him discuss it in person.

Time was, a column in the Post or any of a half dozen other newspapers was regarded as a sacred trust. You could be liberal or conservative, but at least you took it seriously and respected your audience and gave a damn.

The Washington Post is now unreadable. Rove. Cohen. Hyatt. No Froomkin. Ad nauseum.

I strongly urge everyone to boycott their site in order to reduce their advertising revenue.

Must be nice to be a millionaire columnist who can afford to be "bored" with healthcare reform...

"...since Cohen knows "next to nothing" about the subject. The debate over the issue, he said"

So he's just like Kristol, Krauthammer, Goldberg and Barnes, except that he's sometimes honest?

"The debate over the issue, he said, has produced proposals that he finds "mind-numbingly boring.""

I see that the trick to getting this health reform passed is going to be adding Playboy centerfolds and it may require Sarah Palin to pose.

But the guy knows funny!

I was always disappointed in Cohen but felt I was being too picky. It is good to see just how generally he is disliked! He seems a lot like a bad teacher -- one who is filling time and walks and talks but does not say anything.

"Maybe the Animal Planet channel has an opening, or maybe Cohen could intern for Maury.

Hahaha. I just had a mental image of Cohen, Pulitzer wrapped in a tentacle, oozing across the dark ocean floor in search of something interesting.

The Washington Post has no interest in educating readers about our wasteful health care.

He and his Washington Post is best used as shit paper ....

I esp. liked "Africa or some such place."

I subscribed to the Post for 25 years before I finally had enough, & I can't say I miss it.

"Time was, a column in the Post or any of a half dozen other newspapers was regarded as a sacred trust."

Was that before or after Walter Winchell, Evans and Novak, and (particularly for the Post) Art Buchwald? Are they still reprinting that Thansgiving column of his?

Obviously, what Cohen finds interesting or not is up to him. But if he's no longer interested in politics or events of the day, perhaps he shouldn't be a political columnist in the nation's capital?
---------------------

You have to normalize your expectations by everything else that goes on at the Washington Post. This is actually probably far above their expectations for a Washington columnist. It only falls short for the 349,998,150 or so of us who don't work there (and don't forget to also subtract quite a few NYT editors and reporters, making that number almost infinitesimally minute).

After frequenting them daily for many years, being a print subscriber in D.C. I recently gave up on the WaPo. The critical moment came while reading Sarah Palin's column. I realized they were wasting my time, had been for a long time. Then I thought about their whorish editorial and management processes (Froomkin, salons, etc.) and suddenly understood I was being exploited and not getting any recompense.

I'm sure I'll visit the WaPo site again, but they've lost a large part of the esteem I once held for them.

Cohen needs to be permanent sidekick to Brian Fellows and get the hell out of syndicated "journalism."

I have despised Cohen for years. He is lazy, stupid, and ignorant -- and proud of all three qualities. I have absolutely no idea how he has a position of prominence at any newspaper.

I'm cracking a beer and heading into the comments on that column.

I fear for my keyboard.

The Washington Post is in an interesting situation. They are losing readers. They continue to produce the same type of newspaper using the same columnists that they have for the last 20-30 years. Many of their columnists (e.g. Cohen) no longer have audiences or influence.

They do, however, have the best newspaper turf/market in the nation. The D.C. area is home to thousands of government wonks and geeks (a news-hungry, affluent market). They have a great market for good reporting and analysis of U.S. news and politics. They actually have/had some very good talent in their organization (Ezra Klein, Froomkin). They could produce a mind-blowing product daily at low cost.

Why do they choose irrelevance?

Two days ago I said in a comment that the Villagers all have decent health care coverage, that this meant that the whole health care reform thing didn't affect them personally, and that they were therefore getting awfully bored of it.

What I didn't expect was that one of them would be stupid enough to come out and put it into a column. But there is Richard Cohen for you.

And of course, the premier place for this kind of garbage is, who else, the Washington Post.

Steve, in another thread someone suggested you were 'groggy' and I hate to say it but I agree with him. How can you read that first sentence and take the rest of the column literally. He doesn't open it with but that's all that's missing. His whole point in the first paragraph -- I'm not saying I agree with him, but it's worth considering -- is how 'over-exposed' Obama is getting. He's been on every tv show except appearing as a juryman on LAW & ORDER, he's been interviewed by everyone down to Tim McCarver. Now I don't think this is so bad, but that Cohen is bringing it up is worth discussing.

And his comments about health care -- which include

"What was worse, despite reading six newspapers a day, watching cable news shows, network news shows, the "NewsHour" and being online all the livelong day, I could not fathom what the president wants to do with health care. I suppose this is all my fault since, I learn from reading my e-mails, almost everything is.
As far as I could figure out, the president turned over health-care reform to about 24 committees of the House and about eight committees of the Senate, and they have all come up with plans that simultaneously sell out to the private sector and yet somehow socialize medicine . . . as we know it. They are also partisan, nonpartisan, bipartisan (don't ask, don't tell) and in the out years -- and at the end of the day -- mind-numbingly boring. I am thinking outside the box here."

Add to that his comment " I cannot for the life of me figure out why Obama did not simply expand Medicare, lowering the eligible age until everyone was covered. This would take one House committee and one Senate committee and one news conference. It would both provide your average patriotic American with health insurance and keep Obama off TV. This is known as a win-win."

Again, agree or disagree, I think this is an important comment, not saying he finds 'health care' boring but all the complicated details, the different jurisdictions, the conflicting plans and the 'yes I will no I won't except maybe if only' statements that you have -- in your own way -- criticized as well. Just do it, simply, get it passed, without all the palaver.

Again, I don't know if I agree, but compared to the average comment I've read, this one makes sense.

The missing word in line three is (snark) which I tried to put into brackets.

Cohen actually makes a point: "I cannot for the life of me figure out why Obama did not simply expand Medicare, lowering the eligible age until everyone was covered."

The rest was pretty vapid, but that was a decent idea.

I find it kind of cool. A reporter not wanting a canned interview going over the same ground five or six reporters have gone over before. He wants to do or write something original. What an enlightened view.

I find it kind of cool. A reporter not wanting a canned interview going over the same ground five or six reporters have gone over before. He wants to do or write something original. What an enlightened view.

A truly great journalist would find a fresh angle to an Obama interview.

To merely say, an interview with the president, oh, yawn is NOT good journalism or original or enlightened in any way.

The reason why Obama is "overexposed" is because he insists on bringing his message to the people in any way he can. He is making a case, trying to combat all the distortions and lies that are being thrown out to the American people by the GOP and its handmaidens, including, at this point Blue Dog Democrats. The MSM cannot be trusted to get it right. Just one little example: Republicans against health care reform keep referring to studies by "The Lewin Group." I have not seen a single MSM reporter challenge these studies or statistics...or point out that the Lewin Group is bought and paid for by the largest private health care insurer in America, United Health. A little detail. But one which underscores why it is necessary for Obama to take it to the people directly.

Maybe Mr. Cohen could expose little details like that instead of mouthing off about how bored he is with our wonky, "overexposed" president.