David Brooks has outdone himself

[Cocoa]

of all the garbage he has asked us to swallow over the years, this has got to be the least plausible.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/29/opinion/29brooks.html?pagewanted=print&position=

<snip>

The Bush administration has started its second act, and it is striking how different this one feels. When you ask senior officials to remember the first term, they remember it as a time of war. There was the attack of Sept. 11. There were invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. There was the political war of the 2004 campaign.

That was a time when pieces of things were cast asunder. Senior Bush officials talk about this term as a time when pieces of things will be put back together. There's almost a springlike, postwar mood.

The campaign is over. Afghanistan had its election. Even in Iraq, there will probably not be any more big military assaults like the one in Falluja. Now the Iraqis will be making most of the key decisions, and Americans will, with any luck, do more training and less fighting.

More…

[freestyle]

1. I felt like I was at The Producers - Springtime for Hitler

Something is deeply wrom with David Brooks, and his ilk, who are happy, positively giddy, in the face of such death and destruction.

[Cocoa]

4. "new beginnings are fun"

in his escape hatch clause at the end...

Whether this compassionate second-term agenda can really last is another question. Events in Iraq tomorrow and in Iran later on may make these days look like a sabbatical. But new beginnings are fun.

[mhr]

2. Doesn't Jive With This Report - The Voice Of The White House

January 27, 2005:

"I have never in all my years in politics, most of which were spent in and around Washington, seen so much stunning stupidity and rank arrogance as I now see in the White House. Bush, who has insulated himself from the public with high walls and iron discipline and listens only to sycophants and toadies, honestly believes that he has a mandate…not from the American people which he does not, but from Almighty God himself! I have actually heard him say this and in my professional opinion, he is becoming very, very dangerous. Bush believes that whatever he does, he does in the name of and with the permission of God and that to question, thwart or criticize him is blasphemy. I realize this sounds like some kind of a rant but if you worked here on a daily basis and saw for yourself the sorry state that American leadership has fallen into, you would feel like outraged rants as well."

Snip ......

"No one dares to voice any objections and as I have said before, the hothouse atmosphere around the Monkey Palace is sickening in its sycophancy combined with fanaticism. Rove wants to obliterate the Democrats, down to the last one, and replace them with a weird fascistic one party system and the others are sniffing about like curious and hungry weasels trying to find a way to build up their pathetic little empires in the shadow of the Second Son of God (as the saner, and more concerned, of us here call him.) with no regards for the obvious day of wrath that is clearly coming. We have become the Nazis of the Twenty First century but our repulsive, weak and suckass press is terrified to comment on it."

Snip ......

http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1341.htm

[truth2power]

13. From the same article....

"In Germany, for example, irate and anti-Bush citizens (which, according to my figures here are about 75% of the population there) are going around their parks, sticking small American flags in piles of dog shit!"

[saltpoint]

3. Wow. The phrase "delusional propagandist" comes to mind.

Brooks has talent, no question.

Now all he needs is clear vision.

[aquart]

6. So, did he get a White House check?

[saltpoint]

8. I'm not ruling it out, but I don't know, either.

Just wish he'd play fair.

[bemildred]

5. Springtime in Mordor .. nt

[BrklynLiberal]

7. He has always been, and continues to be nauseating n/t

[Colorado Blue]

9. I liked his recent column, about the Heriditary Meritocracy,

which is "outperforming" the rest of us.

I'm, like, if you start a mile out in front of everybody else, by dint of inherited money, power and position, this is OUTPERFORMING?

Please.

And of course my favorite, women should make "human capital."

This guy makes me ILL.

[BrklynLiberal]

10. Reminds me of Molly Ivins' comment on W...

"He was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple."

Guess Brooks would think that is just fine. Brooks seems like the kind of guy that would go around and kiss the ass of everyone born on third base and tell them what a great triple they hit.

[Wright Patman]

20. You could be right

but I've always thought Jim Hightower said that. Molly Ivins has quoted it a lot.

[GOPFighter]

11. They reside in a different dimension than us

When you're rich and powerful, reality is whatever you say it is.

Watch out world, the great American capitalists are coming to pluck your natural resources and use your huddled masses for cheap labor so wealthy Americans can live better and better and better...in their gated communities with their private police forces to protect them from the poor and starving out-of-work Americans.

Edit: dang, I can never get it right!

[Colorado Blue]

12. Do they really think they can prosper and live happily

when their neighbors are suffering? This really baffles me. Back in "the old days", poor people were sort of invisible, whether outside US borders or on the wrong side of the tracks.

But now, we can SEE each other, really touch each other - if in no other way than through the media - and even poor people can get on the freeway or ride the Metra! So even those bereft of conscience or feeling can't really hide. And if we have another Depression, which seems likely to me, what makes them think they'll be inviolable? A police state? Manna from heaven, dropping only in gated suburbs?

You know what really grabbed me - a visit to Washington, D.C. Such a stunning city - truly grand, Roman - but then on the way to the hotel I thought the cabbie was lost in another dimension or something. We traveled through such slums - not that my home city lacks slums! But the contrast with the Palatine splendor was amazing. And what a statement in regard to Capitalism.

For myself I can't imagine being happy while others suffer. But then Yrs. Truly isn't exactly a member of the Ownership Society:)

[MadisonProgressive]

15. "When you're rich and powerful, reality is whatever you say it is."

Unless you have a conscience.

[MadisonProgressive]

14. It must be nice to live so delusionally.

[against all enemies]

16. I can't even bring myself to read his crap. I just read the letters to

the editor a couple of days later and see how ordinary readers tear that asshole Brook's column to shreds. Brook's is such a lightweight it is embarrassing for a quality newspaper.

[Cocoa]

22. also try "Shorter David Brooks"

and capsule versions of other similar pundits, at www.busybusybusy.com.

They boil these guys down nicely.

[Skittles]

17. he must be getting paid the BIG whore bucks

:puke:

[dw]

18. Our local version of Brooks is singing the same song...

In The Oregonian, it's David Reinhard. Here's a snip from his latest column:

I've moved from thinking things are not as bad as they seem to believing they are actually much better, whether on the battlefields of Iraq or Afghanistan or in the battleground states of Ohio or Florida. In fact, I've come to view the once-depressing media accounts and commentary as downright positive. First, they lower expectations in a most helpful way (for Bush speeches and Iraq benchmarks) and make the actual achievements look greater by comparison. Second, the obsessive contrariness on Bush matters creates a false sense of reality, which is a dangerous thing in politics as in life. It leaves you in constant state of shock and bemusement. Rely solely on The New York Times and see what it's like.

How much of an optimist have I become? I think the Iraq elections are going to be far more impressive than most people anticipate. I know, the bombings and the killing. I know all that will continue for some time after Sunday's election. But I think, amid the violence and bloodshed -- our soldiers' and Iraqis' -- and the continuing cries of quagmire, the turnout will be higher and voter enthusiasm greater than we have any reason to expect. Americans may even be humbled by the courage of the Iraqis. After all, something similar happened in Afghanistan -- after a contrary contingent here had spent months informing us we had "lost" Afghanistan.

[beltanefauve]

19. Agreed,

He really has outdone himself on this one. I was floored when I read this. The only thing that sickens me more, is the amount of airtime and credence sellout NPR likes to give him these days, squaring him off against E.J. Dionne.of the Wa Po. :puke:

[CBHagman]

21. The use of the word "fixated" boggles my mind.

As in the following:

"One of the effects of this new attitude is that the administration is less fixated upon the Middle East. There is a much broader global perspective. In candid, sprawling conversations, officials are much quicker to talk about Latin America, and the different challenges presented by the (bad) situation in Venezuela and the (promising) one in Brazil. There is more talk of our relationship with India. There is much more discussion of the need to repel China's efforts to reduce American influence in the Pacific.

"The administration has certainly not forgotten the Middle East. Mahmoud Abbas is doing a great job, everybody says. There might be a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians next month. Senior officials understand that State should send somebody to monitor agreements between the two sides to prevent miscommunications. But there is a clear intent not to let the big dogs like Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Hadley get transfixed by the process."

I would submit that the administration has been both fixated on and neglectful of the Middle East. I've heard the current war in Iraq costs a billion dollars a week. There is no guarantee that terrorism and insurgency, perhaps even outright civil war won't last for decades, as indeed they have in many parts of the world. Doesn't anyone in the Bush administration learn from the past?

As for their neglect of the Middle East, the U.S. basically did no heavy lifting in regards to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. I get the distinct impression they were simply waiting for Yasser Arafat to die, and with the dumb luck Bush enjoys, they got their wish.

But the administration expected to be lauded for every speech or pronouncement regarding the Middle East. I've heard more State Department briefings than I care to enumerate, and they always seemed to dismiss any concerns about the administration's neglect of the peace process with the mention that Bush made a speech about Israel and Palestine back in 2002. That was supposed to tide us over -- over all the deaths, horror, and lost opportunities, that is.

When will people like Brooks acknowledge that Bush has basically asked people to pay with their lives for his glorification and "legacy"?