Lieberman Threat: Krugman Clarifies Column After 'Management' Request

Paul Krugman has, at the apparent request of New York Times 'management,' clarified a column to make clear that he did not wish any physical harm to Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).

Krugman wrote on December 18th that progressives should be angry about the way the Senate health care bill was compromised, but they should not try to kill the legislation.

A message to progressives: By all means, hang Senator Joe Lieberman in effigy. Declare that you're disappointed in and/or disgusted with President Obama. Demand a change in Senate rules that, combined with the Republican strategy of total obstructionism, are in the process of making America ungovernable.

But meanwhile, pass the health care bill.

Someone must have interpreted this statement as a threat against Lieberman, because Krugman stuck this statement into his latest piece:

Management wants me to make it clear that in my last column I wasn't endorsing inappropriate threats against Mr. Lieberman.

Andrew Sullivan wonders where the complaint came from.

"There is no "inappropriate threat" to Lieberman the person here," he wrote. "Just an endorsement, self-consciously hyperbolic, of attacking his public image. Did Lieberman complain?"

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Comments

[dhhh]

06:04 PM on 01/23/2010

lieberman should declare himself a Republican. He is not a Democrat...

[JimBozo]

09:48 AM on 12/23/2009

Isn't Effigy a small town near Tyson's Corners? Or am I thinking of Plxley?

[TruEngineHearing]

08:42 AM on 12/23/2009

The lowest coin in the realm lives comfortably in Lieberman's pocket.

[hdohighdesertobserver]

02:15 AM on 12/23/2009

If you can't take the heat, Joe, stay out of the kitchen.

Management wants me to make it clear that in my last remark I wasn't endorsing inappropriate threats against Mr. Lieberman.

[Dr Jimmy and Mr Jim]

10:07 PM on 12/22/2009

After all the crapola thrown at Obama and other dems about "hanging" they make Krugman apologize to Liberman? Give me a break.

Someone needs to make LIEberman apologize for existing.

[fdavidm]

08:58 PM on 12/22/2009

Personally I think Leiberman should be kicked out of his committees and every progressive should volunteer to work on a campaign to defeat him in the next election.

[Dr Jimmy and Mr Jim]

10:06 PM on 12/22/2009

Personally, I think they should make the republicans eat him.

[NoWMDs]

07:18 AM on 12/23/2009

They did, and quickly spit him out.

[City of Evil]

08:31 PM on 12/22/2009

Well, to be fair, there's a large number of Americans who don't know what "effigy" means.

[Doofus]

04:05 PM on 12/22/2009

Because 'defenstration' is clearly not an
option on the table at this point in time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestration

[ChrisDWard]

02:22 PM on 12/22/2009

When will management step in to stop the almost daily threats leveled at our president by Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh, et al?

[lindabear]

04:29 PM on 12/22/2009

NEVER - they need the ratings!!!!!!!

[ChrisDWard]

02:20 PM on 12/22/2009

Geesh, what a fuss over nothing. Krugman's comment was nothing compared to the tea partiers ugly, racist posters and veiled death threats directed at our president at their summer rallies.

[Manhattanite]

02:00 PM on 12/22/2009

Whoever complained needs some English comprehension classes: "hanging in effigy" is not a threat.

[Doofus]

03:54 PM on 12/22/2009

'Effigy' is obviously somewhere in Utah.

Amazon.com: Effigy: Mormons. Polygamy. Taxidermy. Love ...
Effigy is a historical novel about a polygamous Mormon family
living on a Utah farm during the nineteenth century.

[poster1122]

10:04 PM on 12/22/2009

So it's alright to hang a doll/figure representing a specific individual? So, if a teabagger had a doll representing a certain black President being hung, you wouldn't think that was a big deal, right? I don't see why mock hanging a Jewish man is any better or worse than mock hanging a black one.

These sorts of gestures are obscene in a civilized society because it encourages the crackpots. You just need to read some of the comments below to see what I mean.

[Economike]

12:24 PM on 12/23/2009

Using it as figure of speech is not the same as actually doing it.

[zombywulf]

01:43 PM on 12/22/2009

Let LIEberman be treated like his mentor VIDKUN QUISLING.

[unkn1]

05:34 PM on 12/22/2009

I like the Quisling analogy. I hope nobody at the FBI reads your post and knows history. Is that a knock at your door?

[Shookones]

09:16 AM on 12/22/2009

They just want to cover their behinds for liability.

[ejc bama]

08:30 AM on 12/22/2009

I, for one, would have been fine with the words "in effigy" being eliminated!

[Whatevah]

09:44 AM on 12/22/2009

Thanks for the best laugh I've had in days. I am literally LMAO.

Fanned!

[axel heist]

03:46 AM on 12/22/2009

The important point was that Professor Krugman was allowed to say in his latest column that the NYT management had advised him to clarify that he was not threatening Senator Lieberman in his previous column. Prof Krugman could have easily said: I did not threaten Senator Lieberman. The fact that he stated that he was asked to do so by the NYT management raises a number of intriguing questions. The more intriguing question is, if Prof Krugman had not made the "clarification", would the NYT management allow him to continue to write his regular column.

Some of us have insinuated that Prof Krungman's soft criticisms of President Obama lately was because he was well feted in the White House by the President at a special luncheon recently. That kind of comment is an insult to the two Nobel Prize winners!!

Let's have some decorum around here!