David Brooks is doing that damn thing that seems to be epidemic these days--Chris Rock said it best when he exclaimed to Ann Coulter "you just make shit up!". At the end of an up-and-down seeming attack on the GOP (though he manages to posit that only McCain, Gramm and Novak are heroes in this case of Boeing "leaseback"--what, no Dems on that list, what a shock) Brooks pines for the days of Gingrich, when the Republicans were young and angry. The question (and it's damn near metaphysical) is simple: is Brooks aware of the facts, of Gingrich's district regularly being ranked in the top three pork receivers while he was speaker? Or that Reps spread it around EVEN MORE THICKLY than Dems? Or that Red States get more than they give? I figure he does know this (sorry about reading your mind David, but one becomes cynical about your ilk these days)--Gingrich was a legendary feather-bedder, and i'm sure David has been to one or more lectures at some Gingrichian Institute of Funny Walks down there in Georgia...

Brooks has had a chance to be an important voice of conservative reason on the Times Op-Ed, an antidote to the insanity of Safire (who makes really dangerous shit up), the wishy-washy yucky neo-liberalism of Kristof, the...someone help me out with how to sum up Friedman, someone? Fat chance. Just another guy who would rather score a point than have one.