JOHN HARWOOD'S SEMI-COLONIZED MIND

Well, John Harwood of The New York Times, in today's column on the two parties' approaches to Medicare cuts, almost avoids revealing the degree to which wingnut thinking has colonized his mind. But not quite. He writes:

Mr. Obama has proposed further strengthening the Medicare advisory board. One possibility that would have an immediate impact would be to end the 10-year exemption hospitals were granted from the advisory board's jurisdiction.

But after raising the specter of "death panels" in the original health care debate, Republicans are sure to object to an increase of power for unelected bureaucrats, even in the name of reducing costs.

Harwood gets a gold star for putting "death panels" in quotes. Good for him.

He then loses the gold star for giving us another bit of right-wing booga-booga terminology that's not in quotes: "unelected bureaucrats."

Does Harwood really believe this is a neutral phrase that belongs in a straight piece of news analysis? Does he not even recognize that this is a right-wing catchphrase?

If so -- and it clearly seems to be the case -- the right-wingers have at least partly colonized his mind, even if they haven't been able to finish the job.