There's one time, and only one time, when it will be appropriate for media talking heads to worry about Chimpy the Prez's feelings

Paul Krugman posted this chart with a Monday blogpost, "A remarkable achievement," in which he wondered: "Why were the last 8 years so bad? Even the good times weren’t all that good: by my quick count there were only 10 months under Bush in which the economy added as many jobs as it did in an average month under Clinton. How did Bush manage that?"

by Ken

I hope things are better where you are, but there's not much cheer in my office. We just had seven people fired. On a Wednesday? Who saw that one coming?

By 3:02 Wednesday an e-mail circulated summoning everyone to a 3:30 meeting. It took only a few minutes. It was stressed that the layoffs were no reflection on the people who had been let go. They were all considered talented, productive employees, but given the present realities, the company saw no alternative. To make up for their loss, we were told, we will all have to pitch in. We will have to find ways, we were told, "to do more with less."

The unspoken message: At least you still have jobs. For now.

Which made me think of a conversation -- including the "moral clarity the other night with The Nation's Washington guy, Chris Hayes. On Monday Rachel had devoted a good part of the show to a "special edition" of her Lame Duck Watch, to deal with the craporama-for-the-ages that was Chimpy the Prez's terminal press conference. After watching the astonishing burst of lying cretinousness in which our Chimpy pondered the decision whether to land his plane in New Orleans or Baton Rouge, an incredulous Rachel did her best to communicate her astonishment:

He thinks the problem with the whole Katrina catastrophe was with the photo op!

(Jon Stewart was great on this amazing moment too. After showing the clip, he did one of his longest-ever extended takes of exasperated, bewildered wordless incredulity.)

Now, though, Rachel was pursuing an interesting question. As the Chimpster continues to break his own world records for quantity and brazenness of lies, who is he trying to persuade?

And Chris had a really interesting answer. The Prez's legacy polishers aren't trying to persuade anyone, he ventured. This whole legacy camouflage job is being done to buck up his Chimpiness's own morale.

Take a moment to let this settle in. Now, are you hearing it? This whole orgy of defecating on history, he suggested, is being orchestrated so Chimpy shouldn't feel bad as he makes his exit from the national stage.

The worst thing about this is that it rings true. These are people, after all, who not only deny reality, they spit on it. Reality, they apparently still believe, is what they say it is. And I guess from inside those gated enclaves where the Bush cronies count their looted gazillions, this seems a reasonable proposition.

Oh, I could rant and rave a little, but could I say anything you don't already know? This is a man who has spent his entire life turning everything he touches to manure. And now that he's performed his one and only trick on the country, we're supposed to worry about hurting his feelings?

The only time I want to hear about his feelings is after the judges at his war-crimes trial pronounce sentence following his conviction. Then it will be fair game for the CNN and Fox Noise clowns to shove microphones in his face and ask the man whose favorite hobby is presiding over lethal injections, "How does it feel, waiting for that final needle?"

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