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Physical Standards for Punditry

11:48 AM, May 20, 2009 • By MICHAEL GOLDFARB
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Ben Smith's profile today of Charles Krauthammer contains this quote from Joe Klein:

"There's something tragic about him too," Klein said, referring to Krauthammer's confinement to a wheelchair, the result of a diving accident during his first year of medical school. "His work would have a lot more nuance if he were able to see the situations he's writing about."

Klein's attacks on neoconservatives usually center on their religion, but in Krauthammer's case it seems his paralysis made for an easier target. John Podhoretz makes the key point in response: "Perhaps men and women in wheelchairs, or who are blind, or deaf, or have other infirmities that make their ability to get on a plane and go to Iraq should simply forbear any sort of opinion about such things. They should, instead, be left to Joe Klein."

Also see Jules Crittenden, who coins a new word to describe this vile line of attack.

Update: And check out Pete Wehner's take as well.

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