BARONE OFF THE DEEP END.

BARONE OFF THE DEEP END. Okay, I'm willing to accept the occasional deeply wing-nutty flavor of the national debate as a price to pay for having a First Amendment. I have a long-established sweet-tooth for the chewiest American brands of it, going back to the rainy Saturday in high school when my father, God rest his soul, gave me his copy of None Dare Call It Treason to read. (If you've never read it, get it now. It's a hoot.) But, I'm sorry, this is just nuts.Barone used to be a fairly respectable voice; in our house, we still pick up The Almanac of American Politics every couple of years. But, Michael, baby, I think you've been drinking out of the wrong water-cooler in the FOX Green Room, buddy. (Stay away from the one marked "Ollie North Only.") There's so much to be delighted by, but this is by far my favorite passage:

We are taught that some of the Founding Fathers were slaveholders -- and are left ignorant of their proclamations of universal liberties and human rights. We are taught that Japanese-Americans were interned in World War II -- and not that American military forces liberated millions from tyranny. To be sure, the great mass of Americans tend to resist these teachings. By the millions they buy and read serious biographies of the Founders and accounts of the Greatest Generation. But the teachings of our covert enemies have their effect.

Yes, they do. Among them is the fact that Michael Barone now writes like a space alien. Does he seriously believe, for example, that World War II actually is taught Manzanar first? Where? By whom? (And the voices in Michelle Malkin's head don't count.) I am now on my third child in public school, and I can say that that she is more aware of the importance of the Constitution than are, say, either John Yoo or Alberto Gonzales.Sorry, Michael, but I'm going to be subjecting the next Almanac to what you would call "fine-tooth-comb" analysis, just to make sure you haven't slipped any unicorns in there.

--Charles P. Pierce