David Brooks says it was Republicans who "seemed to detest the craft of governing"? Could Brooks be more disingenuous? It was Harry Reid who foreclosed Republicans from governing and forced Ted Cruz and other principled conservatives into "telegenic confrontation" precisely because the opportunity to govern was closed to them. We are expected to ignore the depredations of Harry Reid, not to mention Barack Obama (because he was not mentioned) and believe that it is Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz who have made the party "image" toxic!
This article is not about Sarah Palin, she is merely a token of the left whom this leftist writer, pretending to be a Republican, cites as Manhattan shorthand for grassroots Republicans. The article is about co-opting the Republican majority in the House and Senate and deflecting it from conservative principles.
Now that Harry Reid no longer has power, David Brooks wants regular order restored:
Republicans are also talking about restoring the traditional practices of the House and Senate. Let individual members introduce bills. Let those bills work through the committee structure and get votes. Pass budgets on time and according to the rules.
David Brooks is not advocating that Republicans turn the other cheek to Harry Reid, he wants Republicans to restore the status quo anti and limit their power to govern under the rules established by Harry Reid. This Republican wants to give Democrats the very rights they had stolen from Republicans to prevent Republicans from undoing the damage committed by Harry Reid's Democrats.
Having taken care of the matter procedurally, Brooks now lectures us about what kinds of laws to pass under the recommended procedure:
… trade, corporate taxes, the XL oil pipeline, the medical devices tax, patent reform, maybe even tax reform generally
On trade make no mistake, Brooks means fast-track authority to Obama for trade treaty negotiations, a position dear to the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal the favored opinion sheet of the Republican establishment, an organ which is also dear to the heart of David Brooks. Corporate taxes and the XL pipeline are matters equally favored by the Wall Street/establishment Republican axis but at least not directly at the expense of the middle class as would be any deal Obama cuts with the Chinese under fast-track authority. The medical devices tax is to focus on a hang nail on a arm infected with gangrene but it is further in keeping with corporate interests, especially health insurance company interests. Patent reform? This is going to restore the Republic and prevent us from going over the fiscal cliff? Tax reform would be welcome to conservatives as well as to establishment Republicans alike but reform is ever in the eye of the beholder.
No exhortation from Brooks to repeal Obamacare, to cut spending, to deal with militant Islam, and, certainly no exhortation to close the border and stop Obama from destroying the American franchise with illegal aliens. That has been left to the likes of Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin.
It was not the Palin era, Mr. Brooks, it was the Obama/Reid era and it was Obama and Reid who with their excesses (not Palin's, not Cruz's) put the Republican establishment back in control of the Senate. Palin and Cruz were heroes of that fight, Mitch McConnell is an opportunist, the proverbial jackal who comes to steal the kill.
