Is Krugman Capable Even of Telling the Truth? Maybe Not

In reading anything by Paul Krugman, I always am prepared for him to distort the comments of someone he does not like to a point where it is obvious that either the man cannot read, or he cannot tell the truth. The primary victory of Rand Paul in Kentucky last week has put the Left into an out-and-out frenzy, and, not surprisingly, Krugman is trying to lead the pack.

Last week, he was claiming Paul is a racist because he questioned some aspects of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Today, he is putting false words into Paul's mouth about the BP oil spill. Krugman writes:

Last week Rand Paul, the Tea Party darling who is now the Republican nominee for senator from Kentucky, declared that the president’s criticism of BP over the disastrous oil spill in the gulf is “un-American,” that “sometimes accidents happen.” The mood on the right may be populist, but it’s a kind of populism that’s remarkably sympathetic to big corporations.

Very interesting, and it seems that Democratic National Committee Chair Tim Kaine said something very similar about Paul's comments. (Hmmm, there is not any collusion between Krugman, the NYT editorial writers, and the DNC, is there? Oh, surely not. They claim to operate independently of one another.)

Tom DiLorenzo, however, notes that Paul did NOT say what Krugman and Kaine have claimed. He writes:

Now it’s the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Tim Kaine, who “does a Maddow” and flat-out lies on national television about Rand Paul. On Fox News Sunday Kaine claimed that Paul said it was “un-American to hold BP accountable” for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Host Chris Wallace called him out by pointing out that what Paul said was “un-American” was a Democratic pol’s grandstanding bloviation that “we should put a boot on the neck of BP.” Paul said that such rhetoric is un-American, not holding BP accountable for damage it has caused.

In other words, Paul was replying to a specific statement in which a Democrat was wanting the government to go further than the law allows in going after BP. He never said BP should not be criticized, nor did he say criticism was "un-American."

Now, it is one thing when Tim Kaine says something like what he said to Chris Wallace. He is a politician and I expect exaggerations and pure partisan rhetoric from the man.

It is quite another, however, when a Nobel Prize winner acts clearly in concert with politicians to put out statements that either are inaccurate or absolutely untrue. This is behavior that should be beneath someone of his stature, but apparently we now are in an age when we have come to expect a highly-decorated academic to make statements that patently are lies at worst and mis-statements at best.

I cannot recall seeing any other Nobel Prize winner in economics engage in this kind of dishonest partisan behavior, not on the right nor the left. Apparently, Krugman is in a class by himself.