Maureen Dowd concludes a column ostensibly about Catholic sex-abuse scandals as follows:
Vatican lawyers will argue in negligence cases brought by abuse victims that the pope has immunity as a head of state and that bishops who allowed an abuse culture, endlessly recirculating like dirty fountain water, were not Vatican employees.
Maybe they worked for Enron.
James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal opines excitedly:
That last line is unmistakably a shot at Dowd’s Times colleague Paul Krugman. If you know the backstory behind this, please email us!
I like James Taranto and read his column every day. But with his constant note that Paul Krugman worked for Enron, he is guilty of the same snarkiness Dowd exhibits.
Former Enron employees, even the evil or stupid ones, like Krugman, should be proud to have worked in a place that was so good. I can’t help but believe that Krugman’s mortal soul was actually elevated the few times he interacted with Enron executives.
Enron was a good, ethical place to work. The fact that it is used as a punchline now speaks more to the creative bankruptcy of political pundits than it does of the company itself.
