Wankertastic!

Michael Shear is engaging in some excellent High Broderism in his Times piece on Mark Warner's centrism.

The former governor arrived in Washington two years ago — at exactly the wrong moment. His party had seized control of the White House and Congress, and were in no mood to compromise. Republicans decided to say no to everything. Mr. Warner found few takers for his style of moderation.

Now, Mr. Warner believes the tables have turned. With Republicans in charge of the House and more numerous in the Senate, he is eager to join with a handful of like-minded Democrats and Republicans to nudge his Washington colleagues toward the political center.

Oh, is that so? Democrats were completely unwilling to compromise?

I guess that's right--that's why Don't Ask, Don't Tell was overturned, we have a single-payer health care system, a comprehensive national energy policy, immigration reform, a vigorous job creation package, and every other program wished for by Ted Kennedy on his death bed....

This is just false reporting that constantly assumes the middle is somewhere to the right of leading Democrats and somewhere to the left of Glenn Beck, no matter what issue might be.

From Warner's perspective, I wouldn't be surprised if he's angling for the Democratic nomination in 2016, so I can very much see why he is putting himself front and center. But to contrast Warner to his supposedly uncompromising Democratic colleagues is utterly absurd.