Duplicity

James Taranto notices everything:

Two Congressmen in One!

• "Just as in Iraq, the President's policies and unbelievable mismanagement on the domestic front have brought pain and suffering to American people. . . . The President is destroying the fabric of America with a combined policy of war, tax cuts for the wealthy, and reductions in spending for domestic needs."--Rep. Charles Rangel (D., N.Y.), Congressional Record, Sept. 8, 2005

• "It's very difficult to understand . . . when the commander-in-chief is leading our great nation involved in two wars for people to be so overtly critical of him knowing, knowing, that the enemies of democracy are listening to that--it's just not right."--Rangel, quoted in the New York Post, Aug. 30, 2010

Two Papers in One!

• ""More government support is needed until conditions improve. . . . [President Obama] needs to rally the nation around a big idea--a project that is worth sacrificing for, worth paying for, worth working for. . . . The economic stimulus they pushed through Congress, for all of the fight, was too small. Standing back is not doing the country or his party any good. We believe Americans are ready for hard truths and big ideas."--editorial, New York Times, Aug. 29

• "A sense has taken hold that government policy makers cannot deliver meaningful intervention. That is because nearly any proposed curative could risk adding to the national debt--a political nonstarter. The situation has left American fortunes pinned to an uncertain remedy: hoping that things somehow get better. . . . Economists debate the benefits of previous policy prescriptions, but in the political realm a rare consensus has emerged: The future is now so colored in red ink that running up the debt seems politically risky in the months before the Congressional elections, even in the name of creating jobs and generating economic growth. The result is that Democrats and Republicans have foresworn virtually any course that involves spending serious money."--Week in Review, New York Times, Aug. 29