Joe the Plumber Creates a Crisis of Confidence

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Is this what we’ve come to? Republicans lawmakers listen to conservative experts and Democratic lawmakers listen to liberal experts, and because everyone listens to people who will tell them what they want to hear the idea of expertise is rendered meaningless, thus opening the door for Joe the freaking Plumber to advise the Conservative Working Group in Congress on how to proceed on the stimulus bill.

This isn’t a single, random, insanely silly moment. This is a sign that something is deeply wrong with the way we make policy in this country. It shouldn’t make you laugh. It should make you cry. (Okay, maybe laugh and cry.)