David Brooks' NYT Column for
4/9 continues his effort to distance Tom DeLay and his ilk from what he takes to be the true GOP.
As we've come to expect from him, Brooks does this while steadfastly refusing to acknowledge the depth and breadth of GOP corruption, labeling the Dems as radical and out of touch, and appealing to what he takes to be the essentially conservative nature of the American people. Only Mr. McBobo could look at the craven Schiavo posturing and multiple corruption scandals breaking out everywhere and observe: "It's become increasingly clear that the Republicans are bumping into some limits." Yeah, as the Titanic said to the iceberg!
His constant refrain in all this is that the lousy poll numbers for GOP initiatives and idiotic posturing merely indicates the essentially conservative nature of the American people. Practically every other paragraph begins with the forumla "Being conservative, most Americans believe that . ."
When it comes to the Bugman, he could not be more condescending to his beloved middle America: "If DeLay falls, it will not be because he took questionable trips or put family members on the payroll. It will be because he is anxiety-producing and may become a political liability." Could he be more obvious in his desire to see the whole DeLay thing swept under the rug, details and all, with the whole mess attributed simply to the "anxiety-producing" nature of the creep himself, not his role as moneyman for the GOP crime machine?
And only Brooks could spin all this as a repudiation of the Democratic party which, he assures us, is "going into a death spiral" while,I suppose, the GOP merely tidies up a few "anxiety-producing" details and returns to the open arms of the real, conservative America.
It should be great fun to watch McBobo continue to twist himself into such logical and rhetorical knots as the scales begin to fall from the eyes of his beloved heartland voters.