David Brooks, in an article to be published in tomorrow's New York Times, continues on his rather bizarre assault on the netroots and the left in general. When discussing the criticism of Joe Lieberman, he states:
What's happening to Lieberman can only be described as a liberal inquisition. Whether you agree with him or not, he is transparently the most kind-hearted and well-intentioned of men. But over the past few years he has been subjected to a vituperation campaign that only experts in moral manias and mob psychology are really fit to explain. I can't reproduce the typical assaults that have been directed at him over the Internet, because they are so laced with profanity and ugliness, but they are ginned up by ideological masseurs who salve their followers' psychic wounds by arousing their rage at objects of mutual hate
. More on the flip...
Brooks, of course, has been on a tear of late, having written an incoherent and nearly-indecipherable screed in last week's Times describing members of Daily Kos as followers of the "KingPin" and "rabid lambs" intent only, he suspects, in venting our "venom" to nefarious ends.
His writing this week, unfortunately, is more of the same. He says
the upscale revivalists on the left reduce everything to Iraq, and all who are deemed impure must be cleansed away
and that
It is about impurity, the scarlet letter, and the need to expunge those who have transgressed
the dogma.
Brooks in this same article says that the issues in this race aren't about left or right, but about how politics "should be conducted", and goes on to speak more of the same of the left's wanting to "expel Lieberman from modern liberalism"
Of course Brooks can hardly be viewed as anything close to being a credible journalist at this point, as he is so poorly in command of either facts or interpretations of events. If anything, his words are testimony more to how the debate about the current traditional media isn't about "left or right" but about how journalism itself "should be conducted".
And that would be with accuracy, fairness, and balance...traits sorely missing in the musings of David Brooks.