Or, just Journalism 101 at the WashTimes, which swears it's mainstream news org. (And please, pay no attention to the launch of the Times' new, right-wing online hub TheConservatives.com.)

Not only can't the WashTimes find any Democrats to cite in an article that's critical of pending Democratic legislation, but look at how painfully dumb the 'reporting' is [emphasis added]:

The word “report” appears 364 times and “tax” is used 214 times -- and while some of those refer to bookkeeping such as tax years, the bill does raise several key levies, such as a “surcharge” of 5.4 percent on individual taxpayers who earn $500,000 or couples with incomes of $1 million.

Rep. Mike Pence, Indiana Republican, said the bill uses the word “shall” 3,425 times, which he said was an indication that a lot of new mandates are being imposed.

Among them is a requirement that chain restaurants print directly on their menus how many calories each item contains.

It's funny, because not that long ago it was a badge of honor among Beltway journalists, and especially those who covered Congress, to be able to understand the often arcane ways of the legislative process. It was considered an accomplishment for Congressional journalists to under all the details and not be phased by the at-times bewildering ways of Congress.

But suddenly more and more journalists seem to be reveling in the GOP's oh-my-gosh-the-health-care-bill-is-so-many-pages talking point. Suddenly Beltway scribes seems to relish the idea of playing dumb on a national stage and pretending they have no idea what the pending health care legislation means with all those mentions of “shall,” and “report” and “tax.” It's so confusing.

As Julie Millican previously asked today regarding an equally lame Politico report about the health care bill (i.e. too many pages!), have journalists who are taking their cues from the GOP and suddenly acting utterly befuddled about the bill, never actually tried to read a piece of legislation before?