Everybody Knows, except the people calling the shots

I've long read Atrios, who I believe goes by Duncan Black when he's not on the internets, for his quick summation of very important items. No one can quite take a huge, boring paragraph of needlessness and shrink it down to one sentence better than him. He's superb at what he does. He also probably is clueless when it comes to politics.

Now I don't mean writing about politics. I mean working in politics. Many of you might not realize it but there is a huge difference between writing about politics and working in politics. I've done both. And it's much easier to write about politics, trust me. Again, don't get me wrong, Atrios does a heck of a job writing about politics. Maybe the best in the biz. But he's never actually worked in politics and never been in a position where he has to choose between listening to a union boss, the party chairman, a central committee person, a single mom on welfare or your chief of staff. When you get in a position like that, and you can only choose one, you end up making a lot of people mad. Alas, that's how it goes. That is the nature of modern American politics. Surely Atrios knows all that and I don't mean to hippy-punch him too much. I just felt the need to note that those who usually make a living off of being critical have never had to do the job they so criticize.

With all that said, Atrios pens one of the greatest analyses of our day and he does it with one sentence: "If you make the case that Republican issues are important, you're making the case for...Republicans."

Alright, so maybe not ever working in politics has made him a much better adviser than anyone else currently working at the White House.  Somebody please listen to this guy...