A better way to call Greenspan a hack

I'm not a big fan of Ron Brownstein. He's usually too careful with this words to move beyond cliche and popular wisdom. I still resent his sappy description of Bush on MSNBC when he was informed of the 9/11 attacks.

But even he can see, and call out, the ridiculous irony in Greenspan's recent economic caveat.

Is he kidding?

That's the only possible reaction to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan's conclusion last week that the massive federal budget deficit accumulated under President Bush was "unsustainable." Declared Greenspan: "The principle that I think is involved here … [is] that you cannot continuously introduce legislation which tends to expand the budget deficit."

That would be an entirely reasonable — even urgent — warning from someone who didn't bear so much responsibility for the problem he's describing. Greenspan lamenting higher deficits is like New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner complaining about inflated baseball salaries.