No, it was me first

Krugman is behind the NY Times firewall, so I have to link to Atrios. Here's what Krugman says, which Atrios appears to print approvingly:

Bruce Bartlett, the author of "Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy," is an angry man. At a recent book forum at the Cato Institute, he declared that the Bush administration is "unconscionable," "irresponsible," "vindictive" and "inept."

It's no wonder, then, that one commentator wrote of Mr. Bartlett that "if he were a cartoon character, he would probably look like Donald Duck during one of his famous tirades, with steam pouring out of his ears."

Oh, wait. That's not what somebody wrote about Mr. Bartlett. It's what Mr. Bartlett wrote about me in September 2003, when I was saying pretty much what he's saying now.

Human nature being what it is, I don't expect Mr. Bartlett to acknowledge his about-face. Nor do I expect any expressions of remorse from Andrew Sullivan, the conservative Time.com blogger who also spoke at the Cato forum. Mr. Sullivan used to specialize in denouncing the patriotism and character of anyone who dared to criticize President Bush, whom he lionized. Now he himself has become a critic, not just of Mr. Bush's policies, but of his personal qualities, too.

I like Paul Krugman. But the man has an ego on his shoulders. In the race to see who gets to have pronounced Bush a nincompoop first, it ain't Krugman. It's likely first Barbara Bush. But apart from that, it's Texas liberals who had to put up with the guy, and then the millions of us who knew right away, before Bush was elected, that the man was inept. Irresponsible and vindictive came behind that pretty quickly. If Krugman is proclaiming he was on the ball because he noted this in 2003, he's also far behind the curve. Who gives a damn about Bartlett, Sullivan, Krugman saying this now? Pointless punditry slapfights.