Brooks: Amuse me

Two columnists. One paper.

Krugman:

So what did we learn from the summit? What I took away was the arrogance that the success of things like the death-panel smear has obviously engendered in Republican politicians. At this point they obviously believe that they can blandly make utterly misleading assertions, saying things that can be easily refuted, and pay no price. And they may well be right.

But Democrats can have the last laugh. All they have to do — and they have the power to do it — is finish the job, and enact health reform.

Brooks:

Fourth, you got to see how confident Republicans are. Obama’s compromise offer is one the Republicans can happily refuse. In their eyes, he is saying: If you don’t make some concessions now, I’m going to punch myself in the face. If you don’t embrace parts of my bill, I will waste the next three months trying to push an unpopular measure through an ugly reconciliation process that will probably lead to failure anyway.

While the writers don't write their own headlines, in this case, their columns' respective headlines says it all. For Krugman, it really is about "Afflicting the Afflicted." And for Brooks, it's always, always about the show -- "Not as dull as Expected."

I really never appreciated quite how cynical Brooks is. He doesn't seem to have much appreciation for all those Applebee diners he claims to understand so well. Republicans looked pretty good! The bill is going to die! And while he claims that Republicans have a lot of great ideas -- exchanges, market place solutions, etc. -- he doesn't seem to understand what's driving up the cost of health care in this country, and he doesn't care to try. And he's either not been paying attention or he doesn't really care, that, as the president said, much of what Coburn had to say -- who did in fact know what he was talking about -- were valid and addressed in the Senate bill.

And while Brooks claims to understand that the health system is a mess, he sides with Republicans' obstructionism because...well, just because.

Somerby blames "the media" and, most acidly, Maddow, for the stupidity of our discourse and the stunning arrogance of Republican leadership. I'd say the blame falls more squarely on our "serious, thought leaders" like Brooks (not to mention Friedman, Rose, Hiatt, et. al.).