In a speech earlier this week the New York Times editorial page editor Andrew M. Rosenthal said that the Tea Party was divisive and nothing more than a wing of the Republican Party while also criticizing John McCain and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey.

From the Patch

He hasn’t written it in the editorial pages of the New York Times, where he leads a staff of 17 who debate and decide the paper’s opinions, but Andrew M. Rosenthal told a crowd at Temple B’nai Abraham on Wednesday night that he is in favor of abolishing the United States’ Senate.

He was joking. Possibly.

“If anyone can name anything the Senate has done since the SALT Treaty, let me know,” he said.

Around 150 people, most with silver hair, turned out to hear instead of read Rosenthal’s views about the issues our time. Rosenthal, the Times editorial page editor since 2007, gave a talk that was freewheeling, cantankerous, threaded with anecdotes, humorous and ominous.

Early on he called the tenor of U.S. politics, “as nasty and as volatile as anything I remember,” and added, “It’s getting increasingly hard to do any governing.”

Though his speech was titled, “From Tea Party to Tehran,” Rosenthal’s most scalding opinions poured out when discussing the former. He called the Tea Party the newest version of divisive politics in America, a trend that he said he watched modern Republicans germinate during the time he covered Michael Dukakis’ presidential bid in the late 1980s.

“The Tea Party is the latest manifestation of this us verses they creed in politics,” he said. “I don’t see this as a real party, I see it as a wing of the Republican Party.”

He said his opinion of the Tea Party was crystallized when he read a banner flown at one of their rallies that said, “Keep Government Out Of My Medicare.”

“It makes no sense,” he said. “It’s like Sarah Palin on her worst day.”

He spared little vitriol in discussing Republican politicians, from Sen. John McCain for torpedoing a presidential nomination for Secretary of the Army because the man had once worked for the New York Times Company, to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who he savaged for raising transit fares and cutting school funding.

“The last time I was up here I said I was worried that Republicans would try and block almost everything President Obama wants to do,” he said. “It turns out they want to block absolutely everything he wants to do.”

Rosenthal, a self-proclaimed Democrat, also criticized President Barack Obama for his cool response to the gulf oil spill, not pushing for tougher financial regulation legislation and not leading a federal effort to deal with illegal immigration.

“I was afraid for a minute when Obama got elected that for once I would have a president I agreed with and then what would I write about?” he said. “That didn’t turn out to be a problem.”

He did, however, recount being one of a few journalists to share a 90-minute lunch with Obama at the White House last November.

“I was pretty star struck, I have to say,” he said.  ”I’ve met Bono and I’ve met Bruce Springsteen. This guy was definitely cooler.”

Wow! Cooler than Bono or The Boss?  No wonder it’s difficult for Rosenthal and the paper to criticize Obama.

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About the author

Don Irvine
Don Irvine is Chairman of Accuracy in Media. He is active on Facebook and Twitter. You can follow him @donirvine to read his latest thoughts.