Useful Idiot...
Village Idiot...
Rube...

It's easy to get confused on when to use what term for whom...

Krugman and Pierce are the useful idiots.

Would you care to explain that remark, Molly? (I'm guessing not.)

I'll explain that remark:
It is swallowed 1% propaganda spoonfed from the likes of K street, Fox and Rush.

Krugman won't be happy so long as the national debt is less than $30 trillion -- idiot is a good word to attach to any fool who follows his economic prescriptions.

Wyden is not useful.

Back when he started is plunge to where he is today, he had a plan.The Grey Panthers, start up this help the senior group, form a base. It was just a matter of not to screw up too much along the way and keep "help" coming for the people that would voted for him. His base was what got him started then he moved on the groups that support him and to hold tight his Democrat buddies on the left.

Worked great, is working great, no one will ever beat him here in this state in a election. Idiot NO. Oregon got what it voted for, and will keep getting what it votes for. Just like the City & county losers that are in office today.

I apologize for the brevity of my drive-by comment. It is helpful to understand where the term 'useful idiot' comes from. Here's an explanation from Wikipedia:

"In political jargon, useful idiot is a pejorative term used to describe people perceived as propagandists for a cause whose goals they do not understand, who are used cynically by the leaders of the cause.

The term was originally used to describe Soviet sympathizers in Western countries. The implication is that although the people in question naïvely thought of themselves as an ally of the Soviet Union, they were actually held in contempt and were being cynically used.

The use of the term in political discourse has since been extended to other propagandists, especially those who are seen to unwittingly support a malignant cause which they naively believe to be a force for good."

I believe the likes of Krugman and Pierce(the propagandists) better fit this description than Wyden (who more aptly can be described as a leader of the cause).

v perley: Oregon got what it voted for....

And what it wanted...
And what it deserved...

More Wyden.
More of the same.
Oregon will only get more so.

Harry, yep, I think that is what I said.

Being around along time, one sees what they do now as well as what they did many years ago... Wyden is a clever fellow planning his career or he was just lucky, I know not which.

Pierce: "zombie-eyed, granny-starving, trickle-down Randian snake-oil salesman"

Thank goodness for the new bipartisanship. Who knows what Pierce might have said.

idiot is a good word to attach to any fool who follows his economic prescriptions

Actually, "rich" would be what you would call anyone who acted on Krugman's economic predictions.

zombie-eyed, granny-starving, trickle-down Randian snake-oil salesman

This is definitely offensive on Pierce's part. Rand's eyes are more or less life-like.

Pierce or Krugman might not be useful idiots. Fellow travelers maybe?

The problem is, Medicare (as we know it), Medicaid (as we know it)and Social Security (as we know it) are all actuarialy doomed.

"The rich" don't have enough money to take to make it work. (such a taking would also mean that they are no longer "as we know it.")Plus, if "the rich" were suddenly to liquify their holdings, who would buy them?

So, you need to ask yourself the same question that General Custer's aide did, "What now?"

No doubt he is an idiot. But how can you say he is "our" useful idiot. He doesn't even live in Oregon, much less represent us.