Patterico has a brilliant critique of David Brooks' recent rubbish.
The thing is, he’s wrong. Not only does he feel compelled to use Fox News to make his smart-ass little point, but in the process he shows he can’t read a simple piece. Because that’s not what Morris Fiorina said. Fiorina actually compared ferret ownership to the number of people on Howard Dean’s mailing list.
Whatever point the man is trying to make, and however valid it may be, is wholly torpedoed by the continuing David Brookness of David Brooks. He is the Conservative who is willing to break Reagan's eleventh commandment and rip on other Conservatives. And, like Kathleen Parker or Megan McCain, that's the extent of why they have him on teevee shows. The smirking unctuousness of it all may get the man a pat on the head by his editors at the New York Times, but gets him little else.
Like Kathleen Parker, who was the Conservative willing to rip on Sarah Palin, this quality has a way of wearing thin. To go out of your way to be palatable and employable by Liberals gets you through the door and into print, but once there, you've no other purpose than to constantly prove yourself palatable and employable by Liberals. You then have no audience but other people trying to do the same. John Ziegler of Mediate has it far better than I can manage here, on Parker's dismissal from CNN's Parker/Spitzer:
Criticizing Palin (along with endorsing Obama) has quickly become the most reliable path to instant notoriety/credibility for ambitious “conservatives,” and Parker became the poster child for this phenomenon. When I went on CNN during my film’s first release, I was actually asked to respond to a Parker quote about Palin. This was especially absurd because Parker had no special knowledge of Palin and was virtually unknown before she “led” Palin’s “assassination.” Had Parker praised Palin, CNN would never have found the quote remotely newsworthy.However, there is apparently a downside side to getting a show this way. Much like a guy who spends all his cash to get the girl and has nothing left to keep her, Parker had no capital with which to make the show a ratings success. Conservatives, most of whom don’t trust CNN to begin with, had no reason to tune in, and she was such a soft and colorless “conservative” that she didn’t even make for a fun punching bag for the liberal audience, or her overrated co-host (based on my experience Spitzer is actually quite dumb). The sad reality of cable news television today is that you must be polarizing to “succeed.” Moderation or wimpiness simply won’t work, especially when such a temperament is clearly contrived, and not backed up with any real talent.
