Ken Berwitz

In the classic movie "Inherit The Wind", there is a scene during which Gene Kelly (playing the H. L. Mencken-inspired character) verbally attacks Frederic March (playing the William Jennings Bryan-inspired character), who has just died - and Spencer Tracy (playing the Clarence Darrow-inspired character) rebukes Kelly by reminding him  that "a great man once lived in that body".

Yes, it was a fabulous cast.  But it also made a very important point:  it is possible for some people to descend, precipitously, from where they have been.

I never thought of Joe Klein as a great reporter, but I thought if him as an excellent one and a very insightful analyst of news events too.  Now he has descended, precipitously, to hard-left-hack status.  It is pretty sad to see, but that is what has happened.

Here is the latest example, courtesy of Noel Sheppard, writing for www.newsbusters.org:

Time's Joe Klein: GOP Is An 'Extremist' 'Regional Southern Party'

 

By Noel Sheppard (Bio | Archive)
November 8, 2009 - 22:49 ET

The Republicans may have won huge victories in New Jersey and Virginia on Tuesday, but Time's Joe Klein still thinks the GOP is "an extremist shard of a party that is essentially a regional southern party in the country."

I guess the 66 and 60 percent of independents who voted for the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Virginia and New Jersey respectively on Tuesday are also part of this extremist regional southern party.

Alas, such facts didn't enter into the discussion on Sunday's "Reliable Sources" when Klein showed how one's biases can easily trump logic:

HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: All right. Joe Klein, political reporters love elections; it's part of what we do. But did this motley collection of races really have the huge national implications that some of these commentators were suggesting?

JOE KLEIN, TIME MAGAZINE: I mean, it was a sign, but actually, I was out of the country on Tuesday. That's how important I thought it was.

But I think that, you know, to go back to what Michael Medved just said, you know, it's not hard to keep all of your party in line when your party has become an extremist shard of a party that is essentially a regional southern party in the country and doesn't have broad appeal to the mass of Americans. And I think that that's...

KURTZ: But Joe, come back to the point...

KLEIN: And I think that that's the problem that Republicans are facing going forward. You know, you had two governors' races where you had Republicans who ran as moderates against dreary Democratic candidates, surprised they won. Up in New York, in that congressional race, you had an extremist attempt to take over the party there. And that extremist lost.

Well, at least Klein was honest about being out of the country Tuesday, as that quite explains how errant his opinions were five days later.

My only disagreement with Mr. Sheppard is the suggestion that Mr. Klein's being out of the country explains his nonsensical conclusions about the Republican party.  Klein was entirely capable of seeing the huge victory that Republicans won among independents last week, no matter what country he happened to be in.

It would be nice if the original Joe Klein - the one from years ago - re-emerged from whatever netherworld that incarnation of him is currently residing in. 

I'm not hopeful.