SCAPEGOATS. Amidst an unexpected digression on anthropological studies of cross-cultural scapegoat sacrifice ceremonies -- I'm telling you, Swampland is a genuinely unpredictable and enjoyable blog -- Joe Klein says, "the atavistic intensity of our scapegoat sacrifices--Imus, perhaps Wolfowitz and Gonzalez to come--shouldn't be surprising." No no no. Scapegoat: "One that is made to bear the blame of others." Imus is getting run out of town for something he personally said. Wolfowitz is on a death march because of patronage he personally allowed. Gonzales's days are (hopefully) numbered because of a politicization process he personally abetted. None of these people are being scapegoated. They're being roundly, rightly, criticized. That said, I didn't know this: "The Jews civilized the process, making it metaphoric, turning the scapegoat, literally, into a goat--which wasn't nearly as much fun." Those Jews. So literal-minded. --Ezra Klein
