'Battered liberal syndrome'

Bob Shrum writes:

A number of liberal bloggers and columnists, most notably the New York Times' Paul Krugman, worry, hint or state outright that Obama appears to be selling his mandate short. Their indictment of the stimulus -- or recovery plan, as Obama prefers to call it -- is that the plan is both less efficient and less fair because it includes tax cuts. Then there's Obama's reluctance to pledge to investigate and prosecute a wide array of misconduct in the Bush administration. Obama is reproved for his resolve to focus on the future, not the past. At the least, dissenters on the left insist, he should establish a truth finding panel, with subpoena power, to rake through the Bush detritus and expose it to the world.

The Left is in a 1974 sort of mood, wanting to do a "Nixon" on Bush. Surely, Obama must realize that the nation faces enough challenges in the here and now that they don't need to be witch-hunting the former administration. But Shrum can't help but throw out some red meat to appease the wolves:

For the moment, the incoming president has marginalized fevered agitators like Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity.

"Fevered agitators"? Ann Coulter's book is No. 2 on the New York Times best-seller list, if that's any gauge of how "marginalized" she is. And since Bob Shrum is touting the "marginalization" of Coulter as evidence of Obama's greatness, you should buy Guilty: Liberal 'Victims' and Their Assault on America.