This morning, on Morning Joe, MSNBCs coffee-soaked klatsch of news mummers read aloud part of Paul Krugman's NYT op-ed -- NY1 STYLE! -- in which Krugman referenced the prescient DHS report that warned of an upsurge in right-wing extremist violence -- and of "lone wolf' attacks like the one recently visited upon the Holocaust museum. In his op-ed, Krugman said:
There is, however, one important thing that the D.H.S. report didn't say: Today, as in the early years of the Clinton administration but to an even greater extent, right-wing extremism is being systematically fed by the conservative media and political establishment.
Scarborough responded:
"We sort through a lot of hate mail, a lot of hate email, a lot of viciousness, and I must say, and I could print them out for people, Paul Krugman's name is attached to a lot of those emails ... they use Paul Krugman as their shill, for their left wing hate. This is because Paul Krugman, like a lot of extremists on the right, they only see their side, they have a close-minded world view, and so Paul Krugman uses this tragedy, uses this death, to try to knock down opponents on the right."
I have no doubt that Joe Scarborough gets a lot of emails that maybe reference Paul Krugman's writings before trailing off into a lot of semi-literate insults, because I get similar emails from people (they do not tend to reference Paul Krugman, though). But this is the first time I've heard anyone suggest that Krugman is an "extremist." It's possible that Krugman's support for a robust stimulus package might inspire a "lone wolf" attack, I suppose. But to be so inspired, you'd have to be hella crazy.
I know this, though: When I hear someone say, "a tragedy, exploited to knock down political opponents," the first things that comes to my mind are the numbers nine and eleven.
[WATCH]
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