David Brooks Is Full of It

David Brooks today expounds on "Courage Politicians." These courageous politicians are a"problem for their own parties" because they satnd up to concentrated power. Well, I guess we know who the two leading 2008 Republican presidential candidates are. Guiliani and McCain have shown personally bravery in prosecuting mobsters and as a POW. But lets not forget how brave a politican these guys have been. Both Guilani and McCain shilled for Bush in the 2004 campaign. Didn't Guilani blame the troops for the 300 tons of high explosives getting stolen and he sure did forget about all that promised money Bush was supposed to send to NYC but didn't when he had a chance to dance in front of the Republican Convention. (Plus, how is the religious right in the republican party going to handle Guilani when all the stories of him having an affair, his wife throwing him out of the mansion and he staying with an openly gay couple.) Certainly, on 9/11 Guilani was mayor of America, but that was because he was juxipositioned to a chicken-shit President who kept reading "My Pet Goat" and was busy flying off to Louisiana and Nebraska during a national crisis.
As for McCain, does no one remember the Keating Five. The S&L scandal that cost upwards of $500 billion. McCain was a bought and paid for politician. He had to take on his clean, Maverick persona to overcome the taint of that scandal. Also, tell me how brave a poltician is who takes on steroids in baseball. Where are the legions of steroids supporters? Then, he made nice with Bush last year after all the crap Rove and company said about McCain in South Carolina. Come on, bravery is the guy who stands between McCain and a microphone. I will give him credit on McCain-Feingold. Do you want to know what McCain could do to impress me? Call for hearings into the $8.8 billion missing from Iraq and war profiteering. Then, I'll call him brave.