The New Pathologic Diagnosis

Peggy Noonan adds a new diagnosis to our medical lexicon today: "Goldmansach's Head:"

"I think there is an illness called Goldmansachs Head. I think it's in the DSM. When you have Goldmansachs Head, the party's never over. You take private planes to ask for bailout money, you entertain customers at high-end spas while your writers prep your testimony, you take and give huge bonuses as the company tanks. When you take the kids camping, you bring a private chef. Goldmansachs Head is Bernie Madoff complaining he's feeling cooped up in the penthouse. It is the delusion that the old days continue and the old ways prevail and you, Prince of the Abundance, can just keep rolling along. Here is how you know if someone has GSH: He has everything but a watch. He doesn't know what time it is.

I remember the father in the movie script of "Dr. Zhivago," inviting what's left of his family, huddled in rooms in what had been their mansion, picking up the stump of a stogie and inviting them to watch the lighting of "the last cigar in Moscow."

When you have GSH, you never think it's the last cigar.

But you don't have to be on Wall Street to have GSH. Congress has it too. That's what the stimulus bill was about—not knowing what time it is, not knowing the old pork-barrel, group-greasing ways are over, done, embarrassing. When you create a bill like that, it doesn't mean you're a pro, it doesn't mean you're a tough, no-nonsense pol. It means you're a slob.

That's how the Democratic establishment in the House looks, not like people who are responding to a crisis, or even like people who are ignoring a crisis, but people who are using a crisis.

Precisely.

"We must act! Now! It's urgent! Don't forget $200 million for contraceptives! $600 million for our new fleet of government cars! Make sure those millionaires can afford their COBRA payments! Let's shove our obsolete health care IT solutions on doctors with a cool $20-billion. I mean, our innovative solutions will be free! And oh, and while you're at it, be sure to throw in $2 billion for child-care subsidies (where are the subsidies for Moms who elect to stay at home?) and another $7 billion for modernizing federal buildings and facilities! Gosh, this all so... well..... stimulating!"

Yep. Slobs. Feeding at the trough.

-Wes