Fair and Balanced

Tony Blankley, editorial page editor of The Washington Times, speaking yesterday on KCRW's "Left, Right and Center":

"I just want to make a clarification. I heard here in town today that someone said that [Michael] Brown was being called a "scapegoat." That's entirely wrong. A scapegoat is an innocent animal who is placed with the blame and the sins of his people -- it comes out of Leviticus, and out of Roshashanna, the Jewish holiday -- and then the goat is driven out of town and over a cliff and killed. Two things are absent in this case. The goat has to be innocent; in this case Brown is guilty. And the high priest who places the guilt of the people -- or in this case President Bush and his own responsibilities -- has not announced his guilt and responsibilities. So on neither account is he a scapegoat. He is in fact simply a malfunctioning official."

And so we acknowledge voices on the Right who aren't completely unhinged.