I had Bartlett on my show, and in person, he's far more measured than his recent writings.

He's still a grade A economist, and the numerous imbalances in today's economy will have to be worked out somehow.

Smart guy, that Brian Anderson

Bruno:

No good economist thinks they will.

How come nobody's reading Lileks?

You'd think Bartlett would have thrown in at least three or four rightish blogs, to avoid the obvious swipe that Orrin couldn't resist.

Not that Orrin should have resisted. What a dumb list of blogs for somebody selling himself as a Reagan defender.

Mike:

Too much home stuff to wade through but his recent screed on the Iranian President's letter was great.

Just so you know, I thought the question about what blogs I read was going to be used for aggregative purposes. I had no idea that my answer would be listed with my name. Next time I will either not respond or take more time to do so.

Smart guy, that Bartlett ;-)

IF! that is your real name...

Whoever did that, it's not fair to make Mr. Bartlett look even sillier.

I don't know whether that's the real Bruce Bartlett, but what he said isn't true.

Here's the copy of the email Bruce Bartlett was sent:

> Bruce
>
> This is John Hawkins from Right Wing News. I'm working on a follow-up to
> an article called:
>
> What Blogs Are Republicans In Congress Reading?
> http://www.rightwingnews.com/archives/week_2006_03_05.PHP#005340
>
> In this case however, the article will not be limited to member of
> Congress (Although 4 of them are already participating).
>
> Which brings me to why I'm contacting you. The next version of this
> article will be going live on this Thursday and I'm hoping that you will
> be one of the participants. If you read blogs at all, all you'd need to do
> would be to send me a list of some of your favorite blogs by 6 PM on Wed
> the 3rd.
>
> Then, those blogs would be posted on Thursday. I really hope you'll
> consider participating because there are a lot of people who'd love to
> know what blogs you like to read.
>
> I hope to hear from you soon.
>
> Best wishes
>
> John Hawkins
> http://www.rightwingnews.com

Seems pretty clear cut to me.

Mike:

I can tell you why I have't been reading Lileks as much as I did:

b/c I have all my blog reading on an rss reader -- sage -- and last I checked Lileks didn't have an rss feed.

Too lazy to actually go to my bookmarks and click. I get it all off the reader. It's all ball-bearings these days.

Mr. Hawkins:

Thanks for the reply. I think most of us here had it pretty well figured out that Mr. Bartlett didn't really think that, although certainly your note clinches it.

Mr. Bartlett should know that you gotta stand by your beliefs in the blogosphere, instead of crawling under the Sergeant Schultz rock.

I spoke with Bruce Bartlett via email and the post above was from him. However, I think this was just a well intentioned misunderstanding.

And if he'd understood it was going to be public he wouldn't have listed the Leftist claptrap he reads? Too funny.

Re: Lileks I've cooled off a little too. I still click over every morning, but confess I often don't read the whole piece. He's such a brilliant observer of the human condition and writes so well, I'd hate to see him burn out because his current multi-column commitment and his other many and varied interests don't leave him much, if any, down time to recharge his batteries. HIs riffs on Gnat are inspired.

Had I only known I'd be held accountable, I would have padded my answers.

You know; just like Reagan would have done.

They would do well to read Lileks. He writes from the perspective of a right-of-center middle-aged middle-class American. His concerns are universal concerns. Understand him and you understand what the concerns are outside of a portion of Manhatan, Hollywood, and the Beltway. Failure to do so is electoraly perilous.

Let's just hope the guys attempting to put in his pond are Democrats. :>)