TNR (Over) Indicts

The New Republic takes obvious, patronizing relish in demolishing Freddy this week, in a piece that is available online only to subscribers. The view from Washington, apparently, is that Freddy is an almost 19th-century creature of an exotic, nearly extinct breed: the local Democratic Party machine hack. There's something to that view, though we're unsure how a magazine whose central political identity is a fond glance back to the great old Clinton years can be quite so snide about politicians playing politics. Anyway, here are some choice excerpts: "All his adult life, Ferrer has been playing by the same set of rules -- that the way to succeed in politics is to behave like an unapologetic hack. Now that he's on the verge of his greatest success, voters and the press have decided unapologetic hackery isn't good enough. Suddenly they want 'consistency.' And 'principle.' And 'character.' Well, I say it's not fair. You don't cut Social Security benefits for people who are about to retire. You don't change frequent-flier incentives for people who've already earned their free trip to Hawaii. And you don't go revising the criteria for political leadership when a longtime pol like Ferrer is about to grab the brass ring.... "To suddenly deny Ferrer his due would be a crime against ambitious ward heelers everywhere, a crime against mixed metaphors, a crime against a lovable sitcom type. Then again, who am I to over-indict?"