David Brooks Slams Norquist, Palin, Bachmann, Limbaugh As Unhelpful
David Brooks. David BURNETT/Contact/David Burnett hide caption
David Brooks.
David BURNETT/Contact/David BurnettDavid Brooks has a New York Times column Tuesday that, like an earlier one, is getting attention as almost an open letter to establishment Republicans to take back their party from the Tea Party wing.
The right-of-center columnist and regular on NPR's All Things Considered identifies four types of Republicans who he believes are most unhelpful in getting serious policy done, like a debt ceiling agreement or real deficit reduction.
They are, he says, the "Beltway Bandits" (he names Grover Norquist) "Big Government Blowhards" (he names no names but Rush Limbaugh surely must've been in the thought balloon over Brooks' head); "Show Horses" (Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann) and "Permanent Campaigners" (virtually every member of Congress fits the bill.)
Norquist comes in for an especially tough Brooks beatdown. The anti-tax activist, Brooks says:
"... has been instrumental in every recent G.O.P. setback. He was a Newt Gingrich strategist in the 1990s, a major Jack Abramoff companion in the 2000s and he enforced the no-compromise orthodoxy that binds the party today.
And here's what amounts to a plea from Brooks to Speaker John Boehner:
Fortunately, there are still practical conservatives in the G.O.P., who believe in results, who believe in intelligent compromise. If people someday decide the events of the past weeks have been a debacle, then practical conservatives may regain control.