David Broder Makes Kevin Drum the Shrillest Man on Earth!

Yes, it is another Washington Post edition of Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? This time it is David Broder: Whenever David Broder writes a column, a fairy has its wings plucked from its back by a cruel wizard and is thereafter consigned to the mud.

Outsourced to Kevin Drum:

The Washington Monthly: #376 IN THE PARADE OF PEOPLE TRYING TO DRIVE ME INSANE.... And today's winner is: David Broder, discussing the vast unfairness of not allowing New Hampshire to single-handedly choose the Democratic nominee for president. Here's my favorite part:

Voters there -- in both parties and especially among the numerous independents who also vote in the primary -- take their role seriously. They turn up at town meetings and they ask probing questions. So do the interviewers at local papers and broadcast stations. So do high school students.

New Hampshire voters don't need -- or particularly want -- guidance from Iowa, and frequently they ignore the Iowa results. But they are stuck with Iowa. Now, thanks to the Democrats, they may be stuck with Nevada as well, and crowded from behind by South Carolina.

Oh, the humanity! To hear Broder tell it, you'd think that New Hampshire's role in anointing frontrunners had been handed down on a stone tablet to Moses. Sheesh.

POSTSCRIPT: I grew up in California and have voted here since 1976. In my entire life, I haven't once cast a primary vote for president that wasn't completely meaningless. How about writing a column on the unfairness of that?

Can anybody explain why none of the Post's staff reductions to date have included David Broder? It would seem an obvious no-brainer...