Oh ... my ... goodness.

What an utterly confused and intellectually inconsistent article.

If Scanlon had any integrity he'd "fisk" this artcile for all the loops and twists it takes.

I don't like Richard Cohen. No, strike that. "Like" is not the proper word. I have no respect for the manner in which he forms his arguments.

He is actually about the most able liberal-opinion monger in the United States and has had little competition for the title over the course of his career.

It does not seem to have occurred to him to ask what share of the geographic variation in crime rates is attributable to restrictions on the trade in guns. The man used to be in the insurance business. It should have occurred to him to ask that question.

That aside, the pose has just got tiresome. It would be just too simple and bereft of possibilities for self-aggrandizement to attribute crimes to the agency of those who commit them. By 'we', Richard Cohen does not mean himself, he means the unwashed who do not read his column.

He is actually about the most able liberal-opinion monger in the United States and has had little competition for the title over the course of his career.

Really? How so? Because in the years I've scanned him I've found his writing to be predictable and uninspirted.

I have found him to be and individual voice, not a manifestation of a type and reasonably intellectually honest and not given to sectarian patterns of thought. I usually disagree with him when I read him, but he is a respectable opponent. He is, however, an old man. Some years ago, James Neuchterlein offered that it was time for him to retire as a writer and editor because he had said everything he had had to say. I think if you look at producers of topical commentary who have had collections published (e.g. George Will and Charles Krauthammer), you notice that the most engaging material is their early material.

The Washington Post has a history of being able to select and nurture talent of all sorts in the field of topical commentary. The New York Times polluted the public discourse with dreckmeisters like Anthony Lewis while the Post was providing its consumers of liberal opinion with Henry Mitchell and Richard Cohen (among others).