5 Feet of Fury

Harsanyi: still not famous enough

Heh:

Any impartial national media type will tell you as much: A bunch of half-baked zealot nutjobs have emerged from the Republican primary field. Folks like Nevada’s Sharron Angle and California’s Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman are all throwing around frighteningly out-of-step opinions.

Let’s start with Angle, who believes it would be prudent — get this — to start de-funding the Department of Education. The Department of Education!

You must be aware that the vast majority of Americans were unable to write or use basic arithmetic before the prestigious bureaucracy began operating in 1980.

Over its 30 years of sure-footed guidance, in fact, edumacation standards have dramatically improved and graduation rates skyrocketed.

Only a wingnut would question the prudence of sinking $50 billion a year into an organization that’s incrementally taken control of local education matters and boasts, as its biggest success this time around, an erroneously named, stimulus-funded contest: Race to the Top.

The consensus on this matter is clear: N U T S. (…)

It’s been quite an education watching the evolution of what are acceptable positions in this country. Also confusing.