A few days ago, I was quite amused to see Sidney Blumenthal's comparison of Bush to Nixon.

The problem, though, with recycling the same canned comparison with the same characters is that it's as unoriginal as it is boring. And the fact is, Bush has a lock these days on being the evil Nixon. Which makes a mere comparison of Bush to Nixon too humdrum for the likings of writers like The New York Times' Frank Rich, who likes spicy writing.

Therefore, Rich has had to ratchet up the comparison a notch further. After an obligatory nod to Bush-as-Nixon (he takes it a step further by saying Bush's "hubris" "outstrips Nixon's by the day"), he breaks in an entirely new meme by comparing bloggers to Watergate figure Chuck Colson:

This is the kind of lapdog news media the Nixon White House cherished. To foster it, Nixon's special counsel, Charles W. Colson, embarked on a ruthless program of intimidation that included threatening antitrust action against the networks if they didn't run pro-Nixon stories. Watergate tapes and memos make Mr. Colson, who boasted of "destroying the old establishment," sound like the founding father of today's blogging lynch mobs. He exulted in bullying CBS to cut back its Watergate reports before the '72 election. He enlisted NBC in pro-administration propaganda by browbeating it to repackage 10-day-old coverage of Tricia Nixon's wedding as a prime-time special. It was the Colson office as well that compiled a White House enemies list that included journalists who had the audacity to question administration policies.

(Emphasis added.)

While it's been tough work destroying the old establishment, by writing such exposes of the blogosphere in such a blatant and challenging way, Frank Rich highlights an embarrassing point: obviously the blogosphere has not been tough enough or thorough enough!

And I swear by the soul of Tricky Dick Nixon himself that I'm going to see to it that Frank Rich will be placed at the very top of the Official Blogger Enemies List!

Hell, as a matter of fact, I won't even wait for the list to be compiled! First thing Monday, I'm going to direct my boys at the IRS to do an official audit of Mr. Rich!

"Don't Follow the Money," taunts the high and mighty Rich.

We'll just see about that!

UPDATE: Via Glenn Reynolds, I see that Frank Rich has been thoroughly (and democratically fisked "lynched" by Tom Maguire, who points out that Rich's comparison-to-Colson meme extends far beyond bloggers:

...the "neo Colsons" include CNN, which cited the Pentagon assertion before rebutting it; the Washington Post, which implicated Newsweek in their lead paragraph; and the NY Times. Have the neo-Colson's swept the board?

I guess I shouldn't have been so defensive about the "blogging lynch mobs" remark. Instead, I should be grateful that Frank Rich is being inclusive.

My mistake.

MORE: In light of my mistake, I'm now reconsidering the IRS audit.