NYT imitates The Onion

Via Taranto, discussing the IRS news:

The Onion yesterday had a funny riff on the subject:

Amid mounting scrutiny . . . Obama supporter Jake Maynard reportedly devised a perfectly implausible explanation Thursday that frees the president from any blame. "Look, he's the President of the United States of America; how could he possibly be involved in or aware of every single high-level action taken by the prominent government agencies he oversees?" said Maynard, noticeably perspiring as he explained the completely illogical reason why the President of the United States will emerge from this week's scandals unscathed. . . . Maynard, whose voice quavered several times during his asinine explanation, ended his perfectly invalid defense of the president by stressing that this was all politics and that "none of this would even be happening if the president were someone other than Obama."

These are times that try satirists' skills, for the Onion barely scooped the editorialists of New York Times, who in today's paper make Jake Maynard's argument, only it's funnier by virtue of being intended in all seriousness:

For Senator Mike Lee of Utah, these incidents proved that the federal budget has to be cut even more deeply. "We need to return it to a simpler, more manageable government," he said, "because that's the only way that we're ever going to prevent things like this from happening."

There are no "things like this," beyond a coincidence of bad timing. But they do have one thing in common: when bound together and loudly denounced on cable television and in hearings, they serve to obscure the real damage that Republicans continue to do to the economy and the workings of government.