A front-page New York Times story about the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, includes this passage:
Aides noted that Mr. McConnell ultimately helped broker the bailout of Wall Street in 2008, just weeks before his last re-election campaign came to an end. But in 2008, of course, there was far greater tolerance from the right for the compromise politics that Mr. McConnell has perfected.
"Of course"? For a Times news article to claim that "of course" the Republican Party in 2008 was far more tolerant of compromise than it is today is just plain weird. Today's Republicans just got done with a presidential election cycle in which their nominee was Mitt Romney, who worked with Democrats in the Massachusetts legislature to pass a universal health insurance coverage bill. Back in 2008, the Times was full of articles bemoaning the extremism of Republicans such as Tom Tancredo and Sarah Palin. For the Times, the Republican Party "of course" is constantly in a state of being "far" less tolerant than it was in some imaginary past.