Yesterday, Matthew Yglesias offered up a list of the ten "Worst Washington Post Columnists of the Zeroes." It's a testament to the atrociousness of the Post's roster of columnists that Howard Kurtz didn't make the cut, though he continues to demonstrate his worthiness.

Today, Kurtz writes more than 1,000 words about the filibuster, leading off with typical both-sides-are-equally-guilty nonsense:

Both parties have dirty hands. So do most liberal and conservative commentators.

When Democrats are in power, they complain that Republicans are abusing the filibuster and ruining democracy. When Republicans are in power, they complain that Democrats are abusing the filibuster and ruining democracy.

Nowhere in his 1,000-plus words about the filibuster does Kurtz make clear that the GOP's use of the filibuster in recent years is unprecedented. The closest Kurtz comes is a grudging acknowledgement that “some are more abusive than others”:

I'm not saying every instance is the same. Some are more abusive than others. The Republicans this year seem determined not to provide President Obama any votes on anything -- with the possible exception of more war funding, and they even tried to filibuster that to slow down health care.

But it is a tool that both sides have used, and that neither side, foreseeing a future in the minority, wants to relinquish. I'd be happy to see it go, but the chances seem extremely dim -- not least because the Senate can filibuster an attempt to change the rules. It's a wonder the Senate once reduced the number of votes required for cloture from 67 to 60.

But it isn't just Kurtz's unwillingness to clearly and unambiguously state the basic fact that Republican use of the filibuster in recent years is completely different from the way both parties used the tactic in the past that illustrates his failings as a columnist. He gets basic facts wrong, too. Check out this portion of Kurtz's reminiscences of filibusters past:

Remember when the Dems were going to use the tool - -the so-called nuclear option -- to block some of President Bush's judicial nominees, and the GOP went, well, nuclear?

That isn't what the “so-called nuclear option” was. The nuclear option was the Republicans' threat to eliminate the filibuster in response to the Democrats' threat to use the filibuster. But that was only one of the fiercest political battles of the past five years; there's no reason to expect a Washington Post columnist to know the most basic facts about it, is there?

Then there's Kurtz's statement that “I'd be happy to see it [the filibuster] go, but the chances seem extremely dim -- not least because the Senate can filibuster an attempt to change the rules.”

Well, if that were true, the Republicans would never have been able to threaten the “nuclear option” in 2005. But since Kurtz doesn't know what the nuclear option was, I guess we can't expect him to recognize that his mention of it undermines his claim that the Senate can filibuster an attempt to get rid of the filibuster.