Billy did it, mom!

Tommy, not Billy, broke mom's favorite flower vase. His fingerprints are all over it. Mom is furious. "Billy did it, mom!" Tommy exclaimed, pointing at Billy. "Did not! Did so! Did not! Did so! ...." If the Washington press corps were covering this domestic tragedy, it would report: "Tommy accuses Billy of reckless malfeasance. Billy denies it. Recent polls show that Americans are disgusted by finger-pointing in general. A senior household official said, "Billy has misbehaved before. I'd hesitate before assigning immediate blame." Never mind that Tommy obviously broke vase. Absurd, right? That's essentially Eugene Robinson's argument about how the media is reporting the debt impasse. "Washington has many lazy habits, and one of the worst is a reflexive tendency to see equivalence where none exists. Hence the nonsense, being peddled by politicians and commentators who should know better, that “both sides” are equally at fault in the deadlocked talks over the debt ceiling. This is patently false. The truth is that Democrats have made clear they are open to a compromise deal on budget cuts and revenue increases. Republicans have made clear they are not," Robinson writes in his column today. It's also clear who broke the vase.