David Brooks: Kowakian Monkey-Lizard and Court Jester of Christie the Hutt

From the 01/10/14 PBS News Hour:

DAVID BROOKS:
...
So, if an e-mail comes out showing he knew, then he is in deep trouble. But, so far, I thought he expressed naturalness. He expressed humiliation. He walked us through in intimate detail how he found out about it, how he fired the people.

I thought it was Christie. Now, my friend Mike Murphy, the political consultant, says the essence of Christie, he doesn't come in small doses. He comes in big doses. And the challenge for Christie as a candidate has always been, will people accept somebody who comes on that strong?

But if he comes on that strong as even a little bit of a bully, which is sort of what he looks like in this, he could be that people want a bully to go to Washington. If they're going to vote for Christie, they don't want a charmer. They want a big bully. And this will not hurt him, I think.

I think some politicians would be hurt by this kind of scandal. He will not be hurt, because his image, as a big, tough, bully, that is what you are hiring him for if you are going to elect him president. And so this is consistent with that image, I think.

And...

DAVID BROOKS: Well, it could be that he was lied to.

It's also, it seems to me, true it's rare that a scandal, especially not a major scandal, knocks out a candidate, Bill Clinton, Gennifer Flowers. Scandals are not -- people are reasonably scandal-tolerant.

And as to Mark's point about whether it should be a bully, I think in normal times, this is true. But now we're living in a time of incredible distrust of Washington, distrust of politics. I think the standards are a little different. In times of high distrust, maybe you want somebody -- and this has happened through history, and even in Israel, Bibi Netanyahu, a little rough guy.

People get -- pick the rough guy when they're really fed up.

Should Christie somehow survive thanks to extraordinary politcal life-support measures taken by Mr. Brooks, Mark Halperin, David Gregory, Joe Scarborough and the rest of the Beltway Both Sider monkey-house, Mr. Brooks will no doubt very modestly and humbly call back to this moment as evidence of his boldly contrarian political sagacity.

And should Christie's career go up in flames, this latest episode of Mr. Brooks waving his Authoritarian Boner around on teevee will, of course, never be mentioned again by Mark Halperin, David Gregory, Joe Scarborough and the rest of the Beltway Both Sider monkey-house.

Because...squirrel!