Well, anyway, they — Republicans, I mean — can’t handle the truth.

Today’s full-scale freakout over a decent jobs report is a sight to behold. Spare me the false equivalence: yes, you occasionally find people on the left claiming that the numbers have been faked or the truth hidden, but not leading figures in the media and major-league plutocrats. (Next time people try to portray Jack Welch as an icon of success, a man we should listen to, remember this moment)

What you need to realize is this isn’t unique to Obama. As Atrios often points out, anyone who really remembers the Clinton era also remembers that this went on all the time: Bill’s a drug smuggler, Hillary murdered Vince Foster, etc.. And then as now, it wasn’t just fringe figures doing this sort of thing; it was the WSJ editorial page, Rush Limbaugh, Congressmen in good standing within the GOP.

For the record, it’s ridiculous to imagine that the Obama administration could arrange (on short notice, no less) to cook the jobs numbers. The sheer logistics would be impossible, plus these are civil servants who have to live under both parties.

I guess there’s a bit of continuity here with the inflation truthers, a group that similarly includes people who unaccountably continue to be treated as respectable.

The thing is, although such antics are funny in a way, they’re also menacing. By attacking anyone who presents awkward facts, the right exerts an intimidating effect. It won’t get the BLS to retract today’s jobs report, but it might bully news organizations into avoiding objective economic analysis, and maybe even into blurring their reporting right now.

So this is crazy and stupid; but it’s also scary.