Thanks for Not Hitting Me (So Much)

I'm starting to feel like I'm watching an abusive relationship. After listening for five and a half years to the rantings of a White House proudly obsessed with its own insularity, we're supposed to applaud when they start hiring people who show the slightest evidence of independent intelligence? Evidently the Washington Post, in a 1,200 word front-page piece by Peter Baker, says yes.

"My experience from my first day here is that debates are wide open, they're wide-ranging, and opinions, even those that disagree with the president, are aired, and people discuss them," [Tony Snow] told reporters when [Hank] Paulson was hired.

You mean, if you're a senior White House staffer or cabinet member, you can speak even those opinions that disagree with the president? How frightfully progressive.