Reply #80: I think when you've been railing against one set of economic ideas for a long time

[Maven]

and then finally, there's a change in leadership, except the new leadership basically espouses a "lite" version of the same ideas, you're bound to get a little frustrated and disillusioned.

Krugman may be a tad dramatic at times but I don't blame him for being passionate, especially when he's been right on so many issues. That does NOT mean that he has lost his intellectual rigor or that he's any less of an empiricist because he makes the mistake of writing like a human being. Your characterization is no better--in fact, it's exactly the same--as those on the right who try to delegitimize liberals by calling us the "angry left."

And I don't think he's being exploited by the wingnuts any more than Peggy Noonan was exploited by certain DUers who liked to quote her when it suited them...