The panic of defeat is throwing even the most seasoned members of the punditocracy into instinctive behaviors that are highly amusing when compared to their smug pre-election conduct. Like endangered animals, their main choice seems to be fight or flight. Today we have evidence of both behaviors from David Brooks (fleeing to pragmatism) and George Will (fighting for the emperor). Let's look at the details:
David Brooks, like the slippery opportunist he is, has wasted no time in running out of the burning Imperial Palace. Today, in the NYT, he declares himself to be an "Independent," after having steadily defended Bush and his magical, mysterious grasp of the great folk wisdom of the American people. Brooks has now awakened to the need for real solutions to real problems. This sunburst of insight seems to be strangely aligned with the collapse of Bush's popularity and the Republican defeat in the midterm elections. Brooks seems to have forgotten that the high crime of wonkishness is associated with wrestling with all the nasty details of, you know, effective leadership. But, no matter, the main thing for our Mr. Brooks is to get the hell out of the palace before one of those burning roof timbers negatively impacts your pundit brand equity. Could this be the same fawning David Brooks who, just before the election, in an audience with the decider, exulted over the posturing and mannerisms that transcend mere competence? Yup, that's him, running out of the White House with his gunnysack full of incriminating photos and cheap trinkets.
But not all of the Beltway pundits choose to flee. Some, like George Will, the living vindication of the dignity of the bow tie, will stand and fight for their boy Emperor. Today, Will unleashes a furious assault on Jim Webb for "boorishness" in answering curtly when Bush inquired about the welfare of his son, serving in Iraq. It is a good thing that Webb did not reply with a question about the Bush daughters drinking their way through Argentina, or poor George Will may have died of indignation. Somebody needs to remind Mr. Will that it was recently revealed that Bush and Rove like to fart in the prescence of newly introduced junior White House employees. This is the "civility" that Will is defending. I am sure that Mr. Will will earn a coveted plaque in the coloring books section of Dubya's Presidential library for this stout defense of his Emperor.
Unfortunately, the panic among the Beltway pundits cannot be addressed by desperate fight or flight strategies. The real extinction threat they face is not the vicissitudes of electoral politics and the changing of the two-party guard; it is the rise of the blogosphere. The pundits are absolutely terrified of an information marketplace in which people do not have permanent franchises. It horrifies them that blog commentators are evaluated, each day, on the merits of what they say. The horror of being held accountable for the specifics of what they say, rather than the mushy mumbling of their courtier-speak, is rattling their brains and making their writing uncommonly incoherent.
The end is near for the Washington Punditocracy. Merit is about to replace position as the dominant principle in political commentary. They can neither fight nor flee from this change in the information environment.