CNBC host, National Review contributor and former Reagan adviser Lawrence Kudlow has long embodied the gin-and-tonic-sipping, anyone-for-tennis, let-them-eat-cake laissez faire Republican attitude towards the suffering of the American people. Even still, his jaw-dropping reaction to the devastation in Japan that "the human toll here looks to be much worse than the economic toll and we can be grateful for that" is a new low. But not by much.
As the slide of the U.S. economy accelerated in the spring of 2008, Kudlow took to the pages of the National Review ("An Economic Cleansing") to declare the growing purge of workers and homeowners a good thing. As it turns out, the distress of more and more Americans, buffeted by job cuts, stagnant wages, home foreclosures and spiraling health and energy costs, was not only natural. Apparently, it's desirable - like an enema:

"Recessions are part of capitalism. They happen every so often...Recessions are therapeutic. They cleanse excess from the economy. Think about excessive risk speculation, leverage, and housing. Recessions are curative: They restore balance and create the foundation for the next recovery."

Of course, Kudlow was extremely concerned about the plight of one group of economic players:

"On the other hand, domestic corporate profits are down 20 percent from their peaks of late 2006. Since profits are the mother's milk of stocks, businesses, and the economy, we will need to see profit improvement before the recovery-turn can be called."

(He need not have worried. As Bloomberg reported today, corporate profits among the S&P 500 companies hit their highest level in18 years.)
Last week, Larry Kudlow also saw silver linings in the shutdown of the federal government:

Doesn't sound that bad to me. It sure isn't the end of the world.
Back in the early '80s, when I served in the Office of Management and Budget under President Reagan, we went through several brief government shutdowns. Yes, the Washington Monument and a bunch of public parks closed.
So what? Nonessential personnel got a holiday. The rest of us had to work.

Last November, Utah Senator-elect Mike Lee told Kudlow he would vote against raising the debt ceiling this spring. While the specter of a global financial cataclysm caused by the default of the United States caused most sentient mammals to denounce that prospect as "insanity" (Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee), "severe harm" (McCain economic adviser Mark Zandi), "financial collapse and calamity throughout the world" (Senator Lindsey Graham), "financial disaster" (House Speaker John Boehner), Lee brushed it off as an "inconvenience" and a "nuisance." Kudlow agreed, calling the fear-mongering "a fetish."

"You know Senator, I always wondered, the government shutdown thing, I know people have a fetish about it. When I worked for Reagan many years ago, we did have a government shutdown, but you know, essential activities continue. It's non-essential activities that get shut down. And if that's what it takes to cut spending, isn't that what it's going to take?"

As it turns out, Larry Kudlow has fetishes of his own, chief among which is blaming Democrats for any stock market stumble while crediting Republicans for any gains.
Perhaps the first propagator of the "Obama Bear Market Myth," Kudlow blamed Barack Obama for the stock market's slide months before he took the oath of office. In August 2008, Kudlow said a one-day, 242-point drop in the Dow was all the fault of the Democrats meeting for their convention in Denver:

"Are the Denver Dems downing the stock market today? The Dow is off 230 points, starting right from the get-go. So-called market analysts are blaming financials and the credit crunch as they always do. But there's more.
Obama and Biden gave us plenty of class warfare in their Springfield, Ill., get together on Saturday. Tax the rich. Redistribute income and wealth. Go after all those corporate meanies. Trade protection...
...With the Denver Dems strutting their stuff, this could be a bumpy week for stocks. Did anyone say free-market capitalism is the best path to prosperity?"

(Can anyone say the truth, which is that the stock market and the U.S. economy overall almost always do better under Democratic presidents?)
Of course, when the Dow hit 11,000 in April 2010, a 38% gain since Obama's inauguration, Kudlow and the rest of the right-wing echo chamber were predictably silent.
Silent, that is, until the new Republican House majority took over in January 2011. For Kudlow, credit for the economic recovery and the rapid growth of the stock market went not to the Obama administration (which Zandi explained last fall helped prevent "Great Depression 2.0"), but instead to the Tea Party. In his effort to rewrite history, Kudlow gave credit where credit wasn't due:

"The elections were the first major step toward restoring free-market capitalism and rolling back big-government controls, planning, and spending. This is a money-politics issue. Stocks roared 20 percent during the second half of last year, as markets sniffed out the huge political change. Post-election, stocks also had a big move, finishing the year at better than two-year highs --- going all the way back to pre-Lehman Brothers."

By Friday afternoon, Larry Kudlow took to Twitter to an offer an apology of sorts for his abominable remark about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

"I did not mean to say human toll in Japan less important than economic toll. Talking about markets. I Flubbed the line, Sincere apology."

If so, that's one apology down for Larry Kudlow - and many, many to go.