Those two terms are not mutually exclusive but it sometimes seems that way. This week, Phil Gramm got his tit in a wringer for saying that the economy is not in recession. It doesn’t matter that his statement is true. George Will commented on that feature of politics today on This Week. Amity Schlaes, whose book on the Great Depression should be required reading for all politicians, weighs in on the subject today. The Democrats are following a successful playbook, however. George Mitchell, Senate majority leader at the time, managed to produce and prolong the 1991 recession by filibustering capital gains tax cuts, long enough to win the 1992 election for Bill Clinton.