St. Paul of Krugman

Politico is not a place I like to be, but they have done a real service by collecting 13 of Paul Krugman's best GOP zingers.

My favorites:

"Sometimes you do wonder if these guys are moles, Manchurian candidates for I don't know who, if their real job is to bring down America because they really are doing the best they can.” — May 18, 2012, on MSNBC's “Martin Bashir,” speaking about House Speaker John Boehner’s and other Republican leaders’ economic policies.

“I have a structural hypothesis here. You have a Republican ideology, which Mitt Romney obviously doesn’t believe in. He just oozes insincerity, that’s just so obvious. But all of the others are fools and clowns. And there is a question here, my hypothesis is that maybe this is an ideology that only fools and clowns can actually believe in, and that’s the Republican problem.” — Nov. 20, 2011, on ABC’s “This Week,” speaking about the 2012 Republican presidential contenders. 

“All he does is make scary noises about the deficit, with mood music, with organ music in the background about how ominous it is, and then propose a plan that would in fact increase the deficit.” — May 3, 2012, speaking with TPM about Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI).

“Just how stupid does Mitt Romney think we are? If you’ve been following his campaign from the beginning, that’s a question you have probably asked many times.” — April 22, 2012, in a column titled “The Amnesia Candidate.” 

“If you don’t know multiple people who are suffering, then you must be living in a very rarefied environment. You must be maybe a member of the Romney clan, or something.” — June 9, 2012, speaking at the Netroots Nation conference.

“It was his time, the Republican base does not want Romney and they keep on looking for an alternative, and Newt — although somebody said ‘he’s a stupid man’s idea of what a smart person sounds like,’ but he is more plausible than the other guys that they’ve been pushing up.” — Nov. 20, 2011, on ABC's "This Week," speaking about Newt Gingrich’s surge in the 2012 race.

“The odds are that one of these years the world’s greatest nation will find itself ruled by a party that is aggressively anti-science, indeed anti-knowledge. And, in a time of severe challenges — environmental, economic, and more — that’s a terrifying prospect.” — Aug. 28, 2011, in a column titled “Republicans Against Science.” 

“Stop, hey, what’s that sound? Actually, it’s the noise a great political party makes when it loses what’s left of its mind. And it happened — where else? — on Fox News on Sunday, when Mitt Romney bought fully into the claim that gas prices are high thanks to an Obama administration plot.” — March 22, 2012, in a column titled “Paranoia Strikes Deeper."

“If Ron Paul got on TV and said ‘Gah gah goo goo debasement! theft!’ — which is a rough summary of what he actually did say — his supporters would say that he won the debate hands down.” — May 1, 2012, blogging “On the Uselessness of Debates.”

“In fact, all four significant Republican presidential candidates still standing are fiscal phonies. They issue apocalyptic warnings about the dangers of government debt and, in the name of deficit reduction, demand savage cuts in programs that protect the middle class and the poor. But then they propose squandering all the money thereby saved — and much, much more — on tax cuts for the rich.” — — March 1, 2012, in a column, “Four Fiscal Phonies,” about Romney's warning of a "Greece-style collapse" under Obama.