We're A Capital Couple Are Bloom And I

Here's more proof that coinciding prejudices trump conflicting politics every time. Literary critic Harold Bloom has compared George W. and Jeb Bush to the twin clowns Dromio of Ephesus and Dromio of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors. He announced to the Baltimore Sun, "I wouldn't vote for a Republican for dogcatcher." Last year he told an audience in Barcelona that President Bush is "semiliterate" and that "to call him a fascist is to flatter him." He would seem to be an odd fit for the pro-Bush, pro-Republican editorial page of The Wall Street Journal—not typically a friendly place for sneering New Haven intellectuals who attack the President on foreign soil.

Yet because Bloom—self-appointed guardian of the Western Canon, author of must-reads like Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, and the formidably titled How to Read and Why (presumably available as part of the Chilton's Guides series)—gives off a vague impression of being a fuddyduddy in apoplectic fury over Harry Potter, Stephen King, and whatever else these kids today are into, the WSJ allows him prime Op/Ed real estate so he can misread Edward Gibbon and gather Clark-for-President wool.

(Back when western culture still had some real standards, Suck.com was still publishing and Nick Gillespie, taking a cue from the Western Canon, did a Titus Andronicus on the rotund critic. Interestingly, Nick's essay provided the last word for this Spanish-language article on old Bloom.)