Saturday, January 11, 2014

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!

9 comments:

Horace Boothroyd III said...

I say We the People give Mr Brooks a swirly, and then ask him how enthusiastic he is about We the People sending a bully to Washington. Bullying is a barrel of laffs until it's your head in the toilet.

steeve said...

"people want a bully to go to Washington"

Waiting for Brooks to call on Obama and Harry Reid to act like big bullies. He should be calling for it in the next 15 minutes. If he doesn't, Brooks has my permission to get the fuck out of public life.

Ebon Krieg said...

We have come to a point in time where there is no escape. You are either with this train of thought or not. Most of us are not...

Unsalted Sinner said...

This is a good time to remember that there actually is a book by Dinesh D'Souza called "The Roots of Obama's Rage". Yes, that's right: Obama's rage! Imagine the reaction if Obama started yelling at people in public the way Christie does. Does anyone think Bobo and Scarborough et al. would respond by talking about how people love bullies?

Anonymous said...

Actual content (or lack thereof) aside for just a moment, I'm ever-bemused simply by his yammering inarticulateness. He's a turgid, meandering, insulated, fact-less writer, to be sure, but I am ongoingly reminded of just how uninspired he is as a speaker as well. Soupy, confused, circular, and dull. A strange asset to be relied upon so consistently in a media ever in search of vaudeville.

the cheese eater said...

It's an oldie but a goodie. Reactionary Libertarian G. G. serves up a great big both sides shit sandwich, discusses David Brooks and calls for an increase in citizen anger.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yY6WSDBt7M

Larry said...

We had bullies in DC who turned a blind eye to intel about the proposed 9/11 attacks. That crew in DC bullied for results and for sport. Eight years of that bullying drove the American public to, of all things, elect a man with dark skin as President. Id say the misadventures of bullying met with a resounding "NO" from the voters.

Redhand said...

he could be that people want a bully to go to Washington.

Right, America wants a political Tony Soprano in the Write House.

It just amazes me how low Brooks will go to shill for the Repubs.

Anonymous said...

@Redhand,

Brooks isn't wrong. The people want a powerful asshole who will take a club to his enemies and win. The issue is we want our side to get it's asshole.

What I wouldn't give for a liberal who'd start taking a blowtorch to flyover, Christians, hicks, NASCAR, the lot of them. But I can't have that.