Fox News III: Enemies List? Really?

Sen. Lamar Alexander weighed in on the Fox News controversy today, accusing the White House of "street brawling" and likening their actions to a modern day "enemies list." Alexander noted that he was a young aide in the Nixon White House who saw the culture of attack and paranoia infect the presidency. All I can say is, "Really?"

I've written that the attacks on Fox are misguided and likely to backfire. But it's hard to see how the White House's jostling with its political foes is anything like an enemies list. And if you look at the crazy attacks on the president from the right--socialist, foreign agent, etc--they seem like pretty small efforts to push back. The genial Alexander will get a lot of attention for his lengthy remarks and call for more bipartisanship. Does that ever go over poorly? But the Obama-Nixon parallel seems more than a little strained. What do you think?

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2009/10/fox-news-iii-enemies-list-really/28786/