David "Pollyanna" Brooks: "Don't Worry, Be Happy"--Bob Herbert: Eff That!

BurtWorm

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Thu May-11-06 09:23 AM
Original message

David "Pollyanna" Brooks: "Don't Worry, Be Happy"--Bob Herbert: Eff That!

Edited on Thu May-11-06 09:24 AM by BurtWorm

Brooksy's happy because he thinks both the left and his pals on the far right (who now control all of his party and the US government) are about to be shut out at the elections. (Thankfully available only behind a subscription firewall):

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/05/11/opinion/11brooks.html?hp

Not long ago, the temper-tantrum left seemed to be on the verge of capturing the Democratic Party, but now the Clintonite centrists are reasserting their intellectual, financial and political supremacy.

Last month, Hillary Clinton gave a proto-campaign speech in Chicago, laying out an economic agenda that Kevin Hassett of the American Enterprise Institute called remarkably centrist. Clinton called for a return to "pay as you go" budget rules. Congress couldn't raise spending or cut taxes unless it filled the hole in the budget right away, the only effective way to restore fiscal balance.

Robert Rubin and others have begun the Hamilton Project, which is churning out policy ideas that defy easy categorization and serve as a blueprint for an innovative, moderate administration. The Democratic agenda will be fleshed out by the free-trade progressive Gene Sperling, and by Rahm Emanuel and Bruce Reed, whose coming book will push ideas on how to increase savings and such.

On the Republican side, meanwhile, most of the news in the next 18 months will be made by John McCain, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. This is a party in the midst of fundamental change. Some of the professional conservative groups that claim they have veto power over who runs the party are about to be exposed.

The intra-Republican debate is less well developed than the Democratic debate because until a few months ago, conservatives passively awaited leadership from the White House. But that has changed, too, and the signs of rethinking are everywhere.

Bob Herbert scolds the Dems for not speaking the plain truth and letting the chips fall where they may (Unfortunately, behind the Times's subscription firewall):

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/05/11/opinion/11herbert.html?hp

We've been listening to this armchair chatter for years: The Democrats need new ideas. They need big ideas. They need to move to the center. They need to wave the flag. They need to go to church. They need the soccer moms and the Nascar dads. They need to run from the blacks. They need to run from the gays.

I have no more patience with this perennially pathetic patient, this terminally timid Democrat who continues to lie cowering and trembling on the analyst's couch, wondering why the Demolition Derby Republicans control virtually all of the levers of power in the United States.

The Democrats are thinking too much and doing too little. This is a party in need of a moxie transplant. It's time for the patient to climb off the couch, walk outside and mix it up with the gang that has made a complete and utter mess of the country that was entrusted to it.

The polls tell us that the G.O.P. is ready to be routed. President Bush's approval ratings are at the lowest levels of his presidency. The war with Iraq is now widely � and properly � viewed as a disaster. Respondents to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll said they believed the Democrats would do a better job on nearly all of the major issues facing the country.

Now would be an excellent time for Democrats to pounce, to show genuine leadership. This is not the time for yet another round of thumb-sucking, for more mind-numbing nonsense about narratives and framing, for more abstract talk about how to define the party. The public needs to know what you plan to do about the war. What's your energy policy? How should we deal with Iran?

...

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wtmusic

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Thu May-11-06 09:25 AM
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1. Brooks: "signs of rethinking are everywhere"

:rofl:

Even in your column, David?

:rofl: *my sides*

Is "rethinking" the same as "revisionist"? Nah...

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reichstag911

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Thu May-11-06 10:11 AM
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3. Nah.

Is "rethinking" the same as "revisionist?"

No, because etymologically speaking, revise means to re-see, and as we've learned from this administration, they do not even acknowledge the evidence offered by their own eyes -- on Iraq, on national security, on disaster relief,.... Nah, their perspective comes from their gut (Thank You Stephen Colbert), or their faith, never from their actual physical senses.

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KoKo

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Thu May-11-06 09:28 AM
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2. Kick and Recommend!

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