Bob Herbert

With the demise of TimesSelect comes the return of Bob Herbert. Apparently Herbert and Krugman both got the same memo earlier this week, which called for them to bash the GOP as a bunch of racists. Among the predictable accusations I was amazed to see this point raised in Herbert's column:

In 1991, the first President Bush poked a finger in the eye of black America by selecting the egregious Clarence Thomas for the seat on the Supreme Court that had been held by the revered Thurgood Marshall. The fact that there is a rigid quota on the court, permitting one black and one black only to serve at a time, is itself racist.

Herbert is apparently against quotas, and I imagine by extension its close cousin affirmative action, citing them as racist. I agree!