David Brooks’ column today was actually epic. Jon Chait’s takedown was so masterful that it dissuaded me from trying to add anything even more devastating. Sometimes you just have to tip your hat. Still, I have to share this bit from Brooks because it’s hard to believe he wrote it:
I may be earnest, but I’m not an idiot.
That is exactly backwards. Or, we must hope it is backwards, because if David Brooks is earnest then he needs a visit from Dr. Kevorkian.
I think I may revisit Brooks’ column tomorrow (or relatively soon, anyway) not to mock it but to embrace a couple of points he tried to make but got wrong. Specifically, I agree with this advice for Congress, but not in the sense that Brooks intends:
As you know, I am an earnest, good-government type, so the strategy I’d prefer might be called Learning to Crawl. It would be based on the notion that you have to learn to crawl before you can run.
I believe he is right about this, and John Boehner is currently being given a crash-course in crawling. This isn’t because the administration wants to be mean, or even because crawling can come in handy after a hard night’s drinking. It’s because we can’t govern the country unless Boehner basically becomes the leader of the Democrats and a couple dozen moderate Republicans in the House. And that means he needs to go through a few iterations of the practice just to get him used to the idea.
But, more later. You know I’ve been saying this forever…