David Brooks: Wanker of the Day

Egad, Brooks' column in the New York Times today stank like fresh, steaming turd. It's a great example of the very different reality in which the beltway punditocracy dwells. He speaks derisively of the "howlers" who object to Bush's commuting Libby's sentence, as if any outrage against the Bush administration is something to be mocked, rather than examined to determine whether or not it has merit. He talks repeatedly of what a good man Libby is. Obviously, Libby is one of us and so to Brooks the thought that a member-in-good-standing of the Washington inner circle should go to jail for a crime is absurd. To him, Libby's lying about the outing of a covert CIA agent who was working on Iranian weapons programs was of a piece with Clinton's lying about oral sex, and people who get worked up about either are just not to be taken seriously.

What a pathetic shill.

I am sick and tired of hearing from conservatives what a "good and loyal" man Scooter Libby is. I do not doubt he loves his wife and family. But Libby is a lying sack of shit who did what he did so his vile boss could get away with compromising national security while pursuing a petty political grudge. People who do such things are to be despised, held in the utmost contempt, not lauded as models of virtue.

Now I'm going over to Atrios to see if he agrees with me on who the Wanker of the Day is...well, he hasn't named on yet, but he did say this:

I'm going to be mad tomorrow. I'm going to be mad tomorrow that the elite media (except Keith) won't point out that Bush's commutation of Scooter's sentence is essentially obstruction of justice. I'll be mad because that concept was regularly inserted into the narrative during the Clinton days.


Mostly I'll be mad because I have yet to see a prominent Democrat put the phrase "obstruction of justice" out there in relation to this. So perhaps my anger at the media is misplaced.