I?m no fan of media outlets? efforts to disguise opinion pieces as news articles (see any of the various ?says who?? entries in this forum?s back catalog), so I wish TIME would had saved the following quotation for a column, rather than a news item on last week?s primary election results.

Still, David Von Drehle?s unattributed assertion is interesting:

There was a lonely bleat of cluelessness from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). This electioneering arm of the House leadership congratulated itself on a triumph in the special election to replace the late master of pork, Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania. Marie Antoinette had nothing on it. Could the DCCC really have missed the fact that Mark Critz held onto the seat by opposing health care reform, denouncing cap and trade, embracing the gun culture and standing against abortion? If Speaker Nancy Pelosi drank Coke, Critz would have campaigned in a Pepsi truck. Earth to House leadership: That’s not a vote of confidence.