For a Man Called Reasonable…
Want a window into both David Brooks and the dominant media framing devices that political outliers have to live with every day? Don't read New York magazine's full profile of the Nationally Great New York Times columnist; just take in the first two paragraphs:
David Brooks is angry—for David Brooks, at least. "This is a damn outrage, to be honest," he tells David Gregory on Meet the Press. The signs of fury are there—if you know where to look. He is blinking faster than usual. His head is bobbing around a little. He raises his eyebrows, but not his voice. This is Brooks at his most fuming.
The outrage in question is the ouster of Utah senator Bob Bennett, who after eighteen years in the U.S. Senate has lost a bid for the Republican nomination thanks in part to strong opposition from the tea-partyers. Bennett's offense: He joined the Democrats in voting for the bailouts and co-sponsored a health-care bill that would require everyone to buy insurance. In other words, he was too reasonable.
Want a window into the world of boats beating ceaselessly against this particular current? Check out the comments to this post.
Some bonus barfbaggery:
It sometimes seems as if Barack Obama and David Brooks share the same rational, unflappable DNA. Every Monday and Thursday, as his deadline approaches, Brooks gets a call from someone in the White House—"I'm not going to say who," he says, which means Rahm—asking if tomorrow is going to be a good day. […]
[T]he special relationship is as much about style as politics. Temperamentally, Brooks and Obama could be twins. They address crises with an almost inhuman calm—an asset at times, but also a liability when the only proper response is emotional.
Reason on Brooks here.
