The astonishing Mr. Brooks

I was wrong.

I was certain that David Brooks could never equal the performance he turned in during the 2008 campaign. Flush with Obama-love he lost all restraint. Brooks put his arrogant knowingness, his ignorant fatuity, and his whining neediness on display for all the world to see.

Even besotted old fools eventually regain their senses and cringe when they look back on what they said and did.

But not our Mr. Brooks. His passion has not run its course and he remains willing to be Barak’s clown. He will even brag about it to interviewers.

The New Republic had an extraordinary story on the Brooks-Obama relationship:

The Courtship

The story behind the Obama-Brooks bromance.

It is a target rich environment for conservative bloggers who want to do a little Brooks bashing. I thought R. S. McCain might stroke out when he read it, but I see that I underestimated his ability to spot an entrepreneurial opportunity.

A good man has to know his limitations so i'm not going to deal with Brooks as he should be dealt with. Two quotes, though, demand consideration.

Here is the still passion-addled Brooks describing his first meeting with The One:

"I remember distinctly an image of--we were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at his pant leg and his perfectly creased pant,” Brooks says, “and I’m thinking, a) he’s going to be president and b) he’ll be a very good president.”

Is this a sign that Mr. Brooks knows he is on thin ice as the Times's resident resercon?

He is known for attracting liberal readers who normally can’t stand conservative pundits. “I get a lot of people who say, ‘I’m a liberal and you’re the only one I read,’ ” Brooks says. “Sometimes, it can be a little condescending. . . . But you take the readers where you can get them. I do wish more people walked up to me and said, ‘I’m a conservative and I love you.’ But, mostly, they don’t read the Times.”

If Brooks is as smart as he thinks he is, then he knows that conservatives know that Brooks is no conservative.

The odd thing is, TNR apparently pulled the article. Back now.

UPDATE:

Michelle Malkin weighs in:

Emetic of the day: The David Brooks-Barack Obama love story

The indispensable Ace:

David Brooks Reveals Not-So-Secret Reason for Mancrush on Obama: "I divide people into people who talk like us and who don’t talk like us"

McCain wants another swing at the pinata:

Open Season on David Brooks

Robert Belvedere takes a couple as well:

BRAIN BLEACH STAT!


AND ANOTHER THING....