My question is “What does Brooks expect?” For eight years, Congress has consistently chosen the wrong path by rubber-stamping the policies of a power mad administration…
September 30, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Revolt of the Nihilists
By DAVID BROOKSIn 1933, Franklin Roosevelt inherited an economic crisis. He understood that his first job was to restore confidence, to give people a sense that somebody was in charge, that something was going to be done.
This generation of political leaders is confronting a similar situation, and, so far, they have failed utterly and catastrophically to project any sense of authority, to give the world any reason to believe that this country is being governed. Instead, by rejecting the rescue package on Monday, they have made the psychological climate much worse.
George W. Bush is completely out of juice, having squandered his influence with Republicans as well as Democrats. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is a smart moneyman, but an inept legislator. He was told time and time again that House Republicans would not support his bill, and his response was to get down on bended knee before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
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House leaders of both parties got wrapped up in their own negotiations, but did it occur to any of them that it might be hard to pass a bill fairly described as a bailout to Wall Street? Was the media darling Barney Frank too busy to notice the 95 Democrats who opposed his bill? Pelosi’s fiery speech at the crucial moment didn’t actually kill this bill, but did she have to act like a Democratic fund-raiser at the most important moment of her career?
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It’s really curious to read his columns lately, not so much that there is anything in them that is groundbreaking, but because they serve as a personal journal of someone who is losing his faith.
It’s almost humorous to see the pattern in his more ‘unorthodox’ writings of the last month or so. First he restates with almost religious fervor his deeply held Republican principles and takes a swipe or two at the Democrats, then turn and go after his ideological buddies and soul brothers with (for him) a touch of venom, and then, as if he man who has recovered from a session of speaking in tongues, stagger, blunt what he has just said, but with a deeply cynical undertone.
. . . good luck Dorian Brooks on your journey to becoming a Trotskyite or (if you don’t watch yourself) a bit of a nihilist yourself.–Vincenzo Kolchak
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