(T)he Republican Party may no longer be a normal party...it has been infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative. The members of this movement do not accept the logic of compromise...
The members of this movement do not accept the legitimacy of scholars and intellectual authorities...
The members of this movement have no sense of moral decency...
The members of this movement have no economic theory worthy of the name....
The struggles of the next few weeks are about...an odd protest movement that has separated itself from normal governance, the normal rules of evidence and the ancient habits of our nation.
Oh wait a minute. That's not Prof. Krugman - it's that other Times columnist
David Brooks, musing on the incoherence of GOP Mad Hatters, fearful of chickens that have come home to roost on his carefully trimmed front lawn, smelling the noxious stuff that has hit his "conservative" fan, chafing at the inmates taking over his asylum and obviously angered at long-ago losing any shot at gaining the driver's seat in the GOP Clown Car.
All these guys are hacks, but Brooks is the most transparent. When it's time to vote on tax cuts and social service reductions he spins sentimental yarns about the Tea Party, but when their know-nothing integrity is threatening to do damage to people making above medium six figures, suddenly he wants to cry foul on their lack of actual policy knowledge. After he stood by while Bush increased entitlements, put the occupation of Iraq on credit and gutted financial regulation, all the while selling it with supply-side/market-knows-best/"Smoking mushroom cloud" propaganda, he can't suddenly pull his head out of the sand when his bond portfolio is on the line. If Brooks really, truly beleives in the market above all else, then with help from cheerleaders like him, the Tea Party has won in the market place of ideas and he should stand up and say clearly that the US should default on it's existing obligations.
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