Heh. Columnist David Brooks is terrified by the Abramoff plea.

[WilliamPitt]

This is from the pay site, so I can't post it all. The juice, however, is below:

Saving the House
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: January 5, 2006

I don't know what's more pathetic, Jack Abramoff's sleaze or Republican paralysis in the face of it. Abramoff walks out of a D.C. courthouse in his pseudo-Hasidic homburg, and all that leading Republicans can do is promise to return his money and remind everyone that some Democrats are involved in the scandal, too. That's a great G.O.P. talking point: some Democrats are so sleazy, they get involved with the likes of us.

(snip)

First, they need to hold new leadership elections. As Newt Gingrich and Vin Weber told me yesterday, Tom DeLay needs to take care of his own legal problems and give up the dream of returning as majority leader. But Republicans need to do more than bump DeLay. They need to put the entire leadership team up for a re-vote. That's because the real problem wasn't DeLay, it was DeLayism, the whole culture that merged K Street with the Hill, and held that raising money is the most important way to contribute to the team.

(snip)

Third, Republicans need to steal David Obey and Barney Frank's lobbying-reform ideas. For some insane reason, having to do with their own special interests, Democrats have been slow to trumpet the ideas coming from their own party. Republicans have a chance to hijack them before the country notices. Specifically, there should be a ban on lobbyist-paid travel. (Members should be allowed to take spouses on publicly financed travel because it is important that members get out and see the world.) Former members should not be allowed to lobby on the House floor. All lobbyist contacts with government officials should be posted on the Internet.

(snip)

Finally, today before noon, fire Bob Ney as chairman of the House Administration Committee. For God's sake, Republicans, show a little moral revulsion. Back in the dim recesses of my mind, I remember a party that thought of itself as a reform, or even a revolutionary movement. That party used to be known as the Republican Party. I wonder if it still exists.

Link: http://select.nytimes.com/2006/01/05/opinion/05brooks.html?hp

[stop the bleeding]

1. Thank you

Rats are jumping ship

[msongs]

2. honest republicans would rather stay in power than be honest nt

[petgoat]

42. The myth of the Honest Republican died for me on 1/6/05

when not one Republican would stand up for honest elections and vote to
exclude the Ohio Electors' votes.

I honestly thought some would. I thought Ike would. I thought Goldwater
would. I thought Nixon would.

[AspenRose]

3. Oh WAAH

"Back in the dim recesses of my mind, I remember a party that thought of itself as a reform, or even a revolutionary movement. That party used to be known as the Republican Party. I wonder if it still exists. "

He's so damn wishy washy. It didn't bother you to hitch your wagon to the GOP slime machine when it was all the rage and going full force, DAVID....

Go ahead and try to get your 'doubts' out there 'for the record'; you aren't fooling anyone.

And what's with the STEALING?

"Third, Republicans need to STEAL David Obey and Barney Frank's lobbying-reform ideas. For some insane reason, having to do with their own special interests, Democrats have been slow to trumpet the ideas coming from their own party. Republicans have a chance to HIJACK them before the country notices."

Isn't that all Republicans do, is steal? They wouldn't know an original idea if it hit them over the head. (Why do Democrats let them get away with it?)

[FreedomAngel82]

35. Of course all they do is steal

Hmm, aren't they supposed to be the religious party? As a Christian stealing, even an idea, is a huge no-no.

[Raksha]

39. Major Freudian slip there:

"...Republicans need to STEAL David Obey and Barney Frank's lobbying-reform ideas. For some insane reason, having to do with their own special interests, Democrats have been slow to trumpet the ideas coming from their own party. Republicans have a chance to HIJACK them before the country notices."

I'm not surprised that he would think it or that the Republicans would do it (what else do they do but steal?) but I'm very surprised that David Brooks would SAY it, and say it so bluntly too, not couched in the usual spin and doublespeak. He must have been writing fast and it just slipped out...a candid verbal "snapshot" of the true Repuke mindset.

How much you wanna bet he qualifies or "explains" it in his next column? It's too much to hope for that he'd actually apologize for it.

[stop the bleeding]

4. this is my favorite quote..

First, they need to hold new leadership elections. As Newt Gingrich and Vin Weber told me yesterday, Tom DeLay needs to take care of his own legal problems and give up the dream of returning as majority leader. But Republicans need to do more than bump DeLay. They need to put the entire leadership team up for a re-vote. That's because the real problem wasn't DeLay, it was DeLayism, the whole culture that merged K Street with the Hill, and held that raising money is the most important way to contribute to the team.

[Kingshakabobo]

5. Hmm. They really are scared.....NO MERCY!! n/t

[Indykatie]

11. Don't Agree With Much Brooks Says

but he has nailed it on this one.

[Beetwasher]

6. "Republicans have a chance to hijack them before the country notices."

Wow. What a fucking repulsive creep. What an absolutely disgusting piece of filth. Not "let's work w/ democrats because, as much as I hate to admit it, they have some good ideas" but "Let's steal them and say they're ours!"

That's their mindset right there. That's why we can never, ever trust these people. They are repulsive and corrupt to their very core.

[KittyWampus]

33. What's More Disgusting Are DU'ers Who Say Democrats HAVE NO IDEAS

[depakid]

40. I haven't heard many people say that

what I tend to hear is that Democrats won't stand up for their ideas- and they repeatedly allow highly visable members of the party to undercut them with impunity.

That's why Republicans are able to co-opt the Dems ideas so often.

It's also why they've won 6 congressional elections in a row.

[FreedomAngel82]

36. Didn't Bush steal some of Kerry's ideas?

I think I remember him shortly after the last "election" Bush stealing some of Kerry's plans about new energy and getting away from foreign oil.

[bballny]

7. steal democratic ideas

Brooks is like the rest of them. Nothing wrong with stealing

[babylonsister]

8. Wow! He's touting the Dems' ideas? wants to hold leadership

elections? Has hell frozen over?:scared:
Oh, too sweet! Thanks!

[skids]

21. Nah. That just CAN'T be...

:rofl:

:sarcasm: I mean, Dems are the "party of the stop sign." :sarcasm:
:sarcasm: Dems have "no plan." Dems have "no ideas." Dems have "no vision." :sarcasm:

[Pirate Smile]

9. Democrats! Hellooooo!!!!!

"Third, Republicans need to steal David Obey and Barney Frank's lobbying-reform ideas. For some insane reason, having to do with their own special interests, Democrats have been slow to trumpet the ideas coming from their own party. Republicans have a chance to hijack them before the country notices. "

[ChairmanAgnostic]

26. ahem. (cough). Hm. Ahem.

Nope, won't happen. why?
"I belong to no organized party. I'm a Democrat."

[annabanana]

57. Please forward this paragraph to YOUR dem congresscritters

And tell them to get a gd clue !!

[swag]

10. A poignant phrase,

Back in the dim recesses of my mind . . .,

particularly given that the dim recesses are the only type available in his tepid, dreary, tiny little mind.

[LittleClarkie]

22. There are dust bunnies in there. And a green thing with red eyes

that nobody can identify.

I wouldn't look if I were you.

[pinto]

12. Ha! Hope Knight-Ridder carries this piece as well - Brooks is syndicated.

[AlCzervik]

13. How nice of Brooks to be Gingrichss bullhorn. I look forward to seeing

him and Mark Sheilds mixing it up on Friday night on Newshour.

[TheGunslinger]

14. If only the sheep would remember the dim recesses of their minds, too.

The GOP ain't the party I knew growing up and it DAMN sure ain't the party of Lincoln.

[Ksec]

15. The ship is asinkin'

Aint it fun?

I love it when the self proclaimed righteous show their true selves. Its so..so..satisfying, like a Snickers.

[Kingofalldems]

16. Bahahaha!

There is nothing they can do now-----Hastert et al postponed the start of this year's session so Delay could make his grand comeback.

[Pirate Smile]

17. Here is a little more:

"Fourth, enforce House rules. There's bound to be corruption when spending provisions can be slipped into legislation in the dead of night, outside the normal oversight procedures. There's bound to be corruption when members are forced to vote on sprawling bills nobody has a chance to inspect. Instead, all legislation should be posted online for 72 hours before the vote, so the staff and bloggers can nitpick and expose.

Fifth, rebuild the ethics committees. Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute proposes a bifurcated process. The investigations should be conducted by a commission of former members and former staffers. That way, current members are not investigating one another. Then the committees can vote on the commission recommendations.

-snip-
Finally, today before noon, fire Bob Ney as chairman of the House Administration Committee. For God's sake, Republicans, show a little moral revulsion.

Back in the dim recesses of my mind, I remember a party that thought of itself as a reform, or even a revolutionary movement. That party used to be known as the Republican Party. I wonder if it still exists. "

[ewagner]

18. I swear.....

If the Dems don't start listening to Dave Obey for a change I'll go nuts.....Dave is a national treasure!


Republicans need to steal David Obey and Barney Frank's lobbying-reform ideas. For some insane reason, having to do with their own special interests, Democrats have been slow to trumpet the ideas coming from their own party

I'll email him tomorrow with a copy of this.....

[Pirate Smile]

28. Maybe we need to mass e-mail the entire Dem Leadership with that

part of the column.

Wake Up, People!











(not you, of course, you know who I mean)

[stevedeshazer]

19. Notice how Newt Gingrich is everywhere now?

Everywhere. I swear I'll check under my bed tonight to see if he's still there.

When they haul out Newt, there's trouble in River City.

[rosesaylavee]

61. Its worse than that, Newt is thinking of running for *resident himself.

n/t

[Justitia]

20. Talk about an "entitlement attitude"!

"(Members should be allowed to take spouses on publicly financed travel because it is important that members get out and see the world.)"

Hey asshole Brooks, no corporation I've ever worked in or my husband has ever worked in (and he was /is the biggest of the cheeses for some very profitable Fortune 500s) EVER footed the bill for me to travel w/him, no matter how "important" it was for us to "get out and see the world"

MUCH LESS A FREAKING PUBLIC SERVANT

Uh, they figured he was making enough $$$ to pay for my personal vacations.

Sure, I went, and continue to go, all over the world on business travel w/him - at my own expense.

Damn, the Republican way of getting someone else to pay, would sure save me some bucks!

[progressoid]

23. He he. Love to watch the squirming.

Lets hope they keep up the clusterfuck. Hopefully, more dominoes will fall if no one takes charge.


Betcha lots of Pepcid AC being eaten in DC lately.

[Garbo 2004]

24. Brooks is "shocked, shocked" that corruption has blossomed in the Repub

party, turning the Congress and the gov't into a feeding trough. Like he's been a babe in the woods all this time.

Tney must be scared.

[InsultComicDog]

27. My thoughts exactly n/m

[EFerrari]

46. Who does this moran think has been paying for his tripe

all this time, the tooth fairy?

Epic oblivion.

[MO_Dem]

25. So, David Brooks doesn't know what's more pathetic?

Looks like he doesn't know any more about honesty and integrity than the rest of his kind (repigs). He is advising them to STEAL David Obey's and Barney Franks' lobbying-reform ideas? That is SO rich. I guess he's perturbed that his buds ain't dishonest enough? He'll be happy if they STEAL something? Sheeeesh! (BTW, I do love David Obey--I've watched him on C-Span a few times and he seems to be a REAL Democrat! I love Barney, too, but then everybody knows Barney)

[tgnyc]

29. Brooks' Republican Party hasn't existed for at least 20 years, if ever.

[donheld]

30. I love it. May they croak with fear

:bounce::bounce:

[thebigidea]

31. when the fuck was the GOP "a reform, or even a revolutionary movement?"

JUNIOR
Well he's the reform candidate, Daddy.

PAPPY
...Yeah?

JUNIOR
Well people like that reform. Maybe
we should get us some.

PAPPY
I'll reform you, you soft-headed
sonofabitch! How we gonna run reform
when we're the damn incumbent!

PAPPY
Zat the best idea any you boys can
come up with? REEform?! Weepin' Jesus
on the cross! Eckard, you may as
well start draftin' my concession
speech right now.

[pinto]

32. When they were taking over the government.

They've been working at it for a while...it didn't start with Bush.

[WilliamPitt]

38. when the fuck was the GOP "a reform, or even a revolutionary movement?"

When the Dems had the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court and the White House, back in the late 1970s.

What we are witnessing is nothing more or less than a backlash.

[Burried News]

34. The mob known as the ReTHUGlican party just needs to put

forward some "lobbying-reform ideas"? Geez let's roll McCain out one more time and talk about putting some real teeth in ... yada yada yada.

Brooks, you, George Will, Krauthammer, Hoagland, Carlson, Novak et. al. need to hire a bulldozer and have it scoop out a mass grave and jump in it. You guys are dumber than the dirt to be pushed over you.

[gristy]

37. Hell has frozen over.

It is now official.

[AtomicKitten]

41. At least he acknowledges the irony.

That's a great G.O.P. talking point: some Democrats are so sleazy, they get involved with the likes of us.

Still Brooks is a shill for the Republicans. It wasn't difficult to come to this cosmic revelation. The Republicans are dead meat. Can't wait to hear the evolution of their spin.

[Disturbed]

43. Rethugs are thieves, liars and greedy scum.

Reform them? Yeah, right. This guy just wrote what most people with any sense already know. This corupt Rethug Party are swindlers who are trashing the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They cannot be reformed. They must be thrown out like the trash they are.

[JWS]

44. I only agree with about 1% of what Brooks says...

But, in this column there's little I can find to disagree with.

[xchrom]

45. for my money, david brooks can't be terrified enough.

he is still a conservative extremist -- listen to him promote stealing democratic party ideas.

he had no problems with the extreme action of bushco and repukes in congress -- until they hit a major bump in the road and their corruption was thoroughly exposed.

mr. brooks is a soulless ghoul who hasn't the courage of his convictions.

[bunkerbuster1]

51. "Rape David Brooks To Save America"

Just in case anyone missed this last month:

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_rudepundit_archive.html

Let us say, and why not, that you're David Brooks, New York Times conservative columnist and desperate apologist for the Bush administration. Let us say, and, indeed, why not, that President Bush and Vice President Cheney decided that the only way to prevent another terrorist attack was to have you raped. So Bush and Cheney went to Alberto Gonzales, who consulted John Yoo, who said, "If the Commander-in-Chief, in a time of war, having been given authorization by the Congress to do what it takes to win the war on terror, decides he needs have David Brooks raped as a tactic to win that war, then the President has the inherent power to so order the raping."

Thus, having been approved by his AG, whose initials are, conveniently for the President, "AG," Bush orders that you be raped by the NSA. Now, you, David Brooks, cannot be informed that such an order has taken place. And while members of Congress have been briefed on the matter, with a couple lodging concerns about the legality of raping David Brooks, the rape has been ordered. So, one day, without warning, some men in black grab you, drag you into a van, gag you, pull down your Armani slacks and boxers, and fuck your asshole raw while driving around New York City until, their duty being done, they dump you in front of the Times building. Let's say, and why not, that this begins to happen repeatedly, these kidnappings and rapes, that you, David Brooks, are gangbanged, force fisted, and turned into a jizz bucket.

[xchrom]

54. and why not, indeed.

david brooks would find an excuse to make even that sound ''moderate''.

[hippiegranny]

47. driftglass dissects this article:

http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2006/01/hey-whats-that-poo-smell.html

excerpt:
>What’s more pathetic that Abramoff’s sleaze or GOP paralysis?

How about the whinging, truckling faux-shock of a certain NYT hack.

Why?

Because Abramoff is what he is – even though what he is will turn you to ash if you look directly into its eyes. And DeLay is what he is too; a moral dumpster-fire that’s been burning and filling the political air with toxins for twenty year.<

~snip~

>What’s interesting is, yet again, the Dog that Didn’t Bark in the Night.
What BoBo is NOT suggesting.

The farrago of moral decomposition and indefensibly wretched excess that is the woof and warp of the GOP has been allowed to metastasize to scope and scale and worm in to the belly of the body politic to deeper level than the likes of Jim Wright and Dan Rostenkowski ever fucking dreamed of for one reason.

Because your criminals hide behind Christ, Bobo.

It is no accident that shoulder-to-shoulder with a mob-wannabe thug like Abramoff stood pillars of the Christian Right like Tom DeLay and Ralph “Satan’s Babyfaced Fingerfood” Reed.

In the past, Democrats -- like anyone else -- can and have become corrupt, and can and have been punished for it.

Severely.

The thing that makes the Republican Party different is not the rot in their hearts – which is capacious – and their seething hatred of the Brown Poor – which they rationalize away into the mists of market theory.

No what makes them worse – lethally worse – is their Fundamentalist Ideology. <

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

48. That was a good read.

So typical, he's like the other Republicans, overly fixated on what regular people do with their private lives and willfully blind to the abuses of power.

[bunkerbuster1]

50. It's all that, and this:

Bobo needs to be able to reach back and say "I did warn my readers about this!" This is his cover-my-ass column.

Fear not, lurking Freepigs--this is but Bobo's rumspringa. He'll be back on the farm next week.

[rosesaylavee]

62. He had one of these 'rumspringas'

the week or two following Katrina. He got all moral on the NewsHour about how he had a tough time even hearing Bush's voice on the previous story while waiting to go on for the week in review...

I had hope that the worm was turning then too.

A few weeks later, Brooks was back being his old apologist self. Either he had had a special dose of koolaid or perhaps just a threat of what the rude pundit referred to upthread... hmmmm.

[xchrom]

55. i'd love to know if brooks is aware of this -- dissection.

he needs to be -- there are few characters i loathe more than him.

his constantly making the most extreme positions of the right wing in this country sound moderate are damn near stupefying just gaze upon them.

[WilliamPitt]

59. “Satan’s Babyfaced Fingerfood”

Got tea all over the keyboard with that one. :)

[quiet.american]

49. Maybe the "insane reason" Democrats don't "trumpet" their ideas....

....is because they know those ideas will not be allowed anywhere near the light of day during the reign of an insanely corrupt Republican-controlled Congress.

[Chimichurri]

52. "Republicans need to steal...

lobbying-reform ideas"
and
"Republicans have a chance to hijack them before the country notices."

Can't they do anything with honor? They are morally bankrupt to the core.

[StefanX]

53. How to read the whole article for free

(1) Find a unique phrase in the article -- a phrase that is unlikely to be in any other article on the web. For example, "Newt Gingrich and Vin Weber told me".

(2) Copy that phrase using CTL-C and then go to

groups.google.com

(3) Paste the phrase into the Search field, quoting it -- and then add on the name of the author. When you are done, the Google Groups Search field should look like:

"Newt Gingrich and Vin Weber told me" David Brooks

(4) Hit the SEARCH button and presto! you will see lots of people who have posted the article in its entirety in various groups on the web.

And you get the added benefit of NOT increasing the NYT's hit-count or having to look at any of their sponsors' ads!

Way to go, NYT!

[mistertrickster]

56. Buckwheat voice: I luvs de smell of Repubbicin flop sweat in the morning

nt

[Stephanie]

58. Well these are not his people - the neo-cons are not implicated

It's just the hoi-polloi republicans who are taking bribes and ruining it for the neo-cons' agenda. Remember Brooks was put in place to espouse the neo-con line, nothing else. He's William Kristol's water boy.

[rosesaylavee]

63. And Newt's mouthpiece apparently.

I find it hard to believe that he had all these ideas all by his lonesome one night as he tossed and turned.

[greiner3]

60. Maybe that prissy (sorry) SOB is in on the crap also!

[jsamuel]

64. If you are that fed up with Repubs and you like Dems' ideas so much, why

don't you just switch to the Democratic Party?

Geez people are weird...

[tinfoilinfor2005]

65. Aww, sounds like he wants to be america's newest little democrat.

Maybe next week he'll join DU and sign up to be a moderator. That would be interesting...never mind Tombstone, David. We would build you an entire mausoleum!