THOUGHTS FROM A MUSHY BRAIN

Many of you already know that reading David Brooks' columns in the New York Times turns my brain to mush.  His latest on Friday the 13th is no exception, so if I sound a bit strange in this post, you know why.  About the Hilary Clinton email story, I think it's much like Whitewater; there's no there there. Suppose she had used two email accounts, the State Department account for business and a private account for personal correspondence.  She could have deleted the emails in her personal account at any time. Besides, Colin Powell did it, and the Cheney/Bush maladministration did it, too.

Brooks once again presents the false equivalency between the president's actions and the actions of the Republicans in what may be one of the worst Congresses in history in terms of getting anything done and blocking every policy of the president, simply because it's his, even when the policy originated in the Republican Party.  His repeated use of the technique is quite annoying and mush-making for my poor brain.

All the informal self-restraints that softened the brutality of politics are being torn away. It’s like going to a dinner party where all the little customs of politeness are gone and everything is just grab what you can when you can.

It seems to me that Obama has been pretty damned polite in the face of ugly and shameful personal attacks and insults that demonstrate a complete lack of self-restraint from certain Republicans and a shocking disrespect for the office of the president.  And they call themselves patriots and claim Obama doesn't really love America!  Who is it that doesn't love America?

But the worst of the column is in the following two paragraphs:

The only way to reverse the protocol crisis is to create policies that can win bipartisan support. If the next president gets the substance right, the manners will follow.

Can Hillary Clinton do this? Is she strong enough to rise above hostility, to instead reveal scary and vulnerable parts of herself so that voters feel as though they can trust and relate to her? We’ll see. 

Which policies of substance would those be, David, that would be win bipartisan support and inspire a polite response from Republicans?  Dream on.  The model for Obamacare is Romneycare, which Mitt Romney (R) signed into law when he was governor of Massachusetts.  Was that sufficient to blunt the opposition?  Lawsuit after lawsuit to have the program declared unconstitutional instigated by Republicans is your answer.  If Clinton announces she will be a candidate for president, we will see drama on steroids, as we saw throughout Bill Clinton's presidency. 

The present attacks on Clinton are all about Benghazi and trying to catch her in some heinous dereliction of duty that caused the death of Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, and the two Marines in the diplomatic facility in Benghazi.  Republicans seem to suggest in a roundabout way that Clinton may have attempted a coverup about Benghazi by deleting her personal email correspondence.  Benghazi! Benghazi!  Benghazi!  The story will never be over for them, though the matter has been thoroughly investigated by Congress, and we will hear about it from Republicans till kingdom come, either overtly or covertly, as in the email flap.

A two-year investigation by the Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee has found that the CIA and the military acted properly in responding to the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, and asserted no wrongdoing by Obama administration appointees.

While I admit the Clintons attract drama as flypaper attracts flies, I'd like for Brooks to name  a Democratic candidate for president who could work with the present Congress and inspire them to practice good manners.  Also, is Brooks strong enough to reveal scary and vulnerable parts of himself so that readers feel as though they can trust and relate to him?