a bellwether?

Thomas Friedman is a painfully nice guy. He's been bending over backwards to be a true moderate: giving the Bushies the benefit of the doubt, trying to see the silver lining, supporting Bush in Iraq because getting rid of tyrants is the right thing to do and a West-friendly democracy in the Middle East would be good for Israel, nicely urging rational thought and responsible policies and refusing to give up hope no matter how often the Administration has demonstrated that it doesn't give a damn about rational thought or responsible policies.

But even Thomas Friedman, it appears, has his breaking point. I am tempted to say: "Finally! And what took you so long?" I glanced at the title of his op-ed today, assumed it was by Bob Herbert (and wondered why he had gotten in two days in a row), then noticed who the writer actually was and was floored. The times they are a-changing, I hope.