Brooks: Republican Leaders “Insane”

Every once in a while, a broken clock tells the correct time. Such it is in the case of David Brooks, who like most bobbleheads is a conservative because he’s rich -- by virtue of having married into an incredibly wealthy family, not on his own merits mind you.

But to his credit, he has seen some of the writing on the wall and is sounding distinctly disenchanted these days. I don’t hold any hope for a permanent reformation -- the guy’s an idiot, was and is and always will be -- but he certainly called it like he saw it on Sunday’s edition of “This Week.” I can’t surpass this analysis of his remarks by Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly, so instead I’ll just steer you to Brooks’ actual remarks:



And follow that up with a link to Benen’s take, including this choice quote:

At the risk of sounding picky, I'd just add one small caveat, though. GOP lawmakers are "stuck with Reagan" and a pre-recession mindset; this much is obvious. But what occasionally bears repeating is that they don't even remember Reagan especially well. Reality may be blasphemous in some Republican circles but the inconvenient truth is Reagan raised taxes. He raised them several times.

Another thing Republicans don’t seem to grok is that if they’ve traded in the christian god for “Tax Cuts,” as their lord and saviour, that would make Barack Obama their pope. He is the sole author of the largest tax cut in US history, and every single one of them (but three) voted against it. Do these people stand for anything with any consistency?

If the GOP is scrambling around looking for a leader, I have a suggestion: start listening to your rank and file again. I may not always agree with “normal” Republicans or Conservatives politically, but I find them to be much smarter and more pragmatic than their leadership, suggesting that if the grass-roots ran that party, there would be more co-operation, more accomplishment, and where there were battles they would be over ideas that matter rather than the hypocrisy of “earmarks”.