The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Are Vampire Masks Racist? Also: How Bad Does David Brooks Suck?

Posted on | January 6, 2010 | 23 Comments

Of course, I don’t think vampire masks are racist, but expect the Left to make that accusation against Michelle Malkin.

Speaking of vampires and other things that suck worse than Avatar, David Brooks’ column yesterday was a backhanded putdown of the Tea Party movement, as Malkin notes.

I bought the New York Times yesterday in the San Francisco airport and, as soon as I saw that column, bitterly lamented that David Brooks Fisking Day found me traveling without WiFi access. Perhaps readers won’t mind a day-late delivery.

Because I have covered the Tea Party movement extensively, what struck me about Brooks’ column was the absolute absence of reporting. Not a single Tea Party source was interviewed for his column. Brooks is so busy admiring the crease of Obama’s pants leg, he can’t find time to go to a rally and talk to people like Jenny Beth Martin, Rhonda Lee Welsch, Andrea Shea King and Barbara Espinosa.

Reporting isn’t brain surgery, as Jimmie Bise likes to say, but it’s apparently beneath Brooks’ pay-grade. Brooks gets a six-figure salary from the New York Times, but couldn’t be bothered to travel upstate to cover Doug Hoffman’s NY23 campaign, which I covered on a tip-jar budget.

BTW, thanks to all the good readers who hit the tip jar yesterday.  Saturday, I’ll be hanging out with Chris Cassone and his buddies at a Tea Party event in Altadena, Calif. Brooks’ elitist notion that Tea Party people are ignorant, angry rabble dissolves instantly the minute you talk to the people.

Category: David Brooks Fisking Day, Michelle Malkin, New York Times, Racism, Tea Party

Comments

23 Responses to “Are Vampire Masks Racist? Also: How Bad Does David Brooks Suck?”

  1. Philip Primeau
    January 6th, 2010 @ 3:58 pm

    Um. It’s final: You are now suffering from Brooks Derangement Syndrome. Not only does this column not comment negatively on the tea party movement, it actually reveals it in a pretty favorable light. Brooks situates it as a natural and fair expression of middle American discontent, in contrast with the self-interested, self-serving D.C. two-partycrats.

    Sure, he notes that the movement is not really his style, and that there’s a potential for problems if it can’t sophisticate its tone and message, but the portrayal is far from blindly hostile, far from reflexively dismissive.

    Hey, he even gives a positive shout-out to Marco Rubio. On the NYT editorial page! C’mon, Stacy, give the guy a break. Sure, he’s an effete dork, but he’s the closest thing conservatives have to an “inside guy,” and the GOP’s best chance to retaining the financial and yacht club elite that prevents the party from going extinct in the Northeast.

  2. Philip Primeau
    January 6th, 2010 @ 10:58 am

    Um. It’s final: You are now suffering from Brooks Derangement Syndrome. Not only does this column not comment negatively on the tea party movement, it actually reveals it in a pretty favorable light. Brooks situates it as a natural and fair expression of middle American discontent, in contrast with the self-interested, self-serving D.C. two-partycrats.

    Sure, he notes that the movement is not really his style, and that there’s a potential for problems if it can’t sophisticate its tone and message, but the portrayal is far from blindly hostile, far from reflexively dismissive.

    Hey, he even gives a positive shout-out to Marco Rubio. On the NYT editorial page! C’mon, Stacy, give the guy a break. Sure, he’s an effete dork, but he’s the closest thing conservatives have to an “inside guy,” and the GOP’s best chance to retaining the financial and yacht club elite that prevents the party from going extinct in the Northeast.

  3. Joe
    January 6th, 2010 @ 4:14 pm

    Protein Wisdom is filling in for you:

    Ms. Brooks regrets she is unable to lunch today…

    “Oh, hi! A-heh heh! Is Miss Brooks in?”
    “Miss Brooks regrets she’s unable to lunch today.”

    Miss Brooks regrets she’s unable to lunch today, madam.
    Miss Brooks regrets she’s unable to lunch today, mmmmmm.
    And she’s sorry to be delayed,
    but last evening down at lover’s lane
    she strayed, madam.
    Miss Brooks regrets she’s unable to lunch today.

    When she woke up and found
    that her dream of love was gone, madam,
    she ran to the man
    who had lead her so far astray.
    And from under her velvet gown
    she drew a gun and shot her lover down, madam.
    Miss Brooks regrets she’s unable to lunch today.

    When the mob came and got her
    and dragged her from the jail, madam,
    they strung her up
    on the willow across the way.
    And the moment before she died
    she lifted up her lovely head and cried, madam.
    Miss Brooks regrets she’s unable to lunch.
    Miss Brooks regrets she’s unable to lunch today.

  4. Joe
    January 6th, 2010 @ 11:14 am

    Protein Wisdom is filling in for you:

    Ms. Brooks regrets she is unable to lunch today…

    “Oh, hi! A-heh heh! Is Miss Brooks in?”
    “Miss Brooks regrets she’s unable to lunch today.”

    Miss Brooks regrets she’s unable to lunch today, madam.
    Miss Brooks regrets she’s unable to lunch today, mmmmmm.
    And she’s sorry to be delayed,
    but last evening down at lover’s lane
    she strayed, madam.
    Miss Brooks regrets she’s unable to lunch today.

    When she woke up and found
    that her dream of love was gone, madam,
    she ran to the man
    who had lead her so far astray.
    And from under her velvet gown
    she drew a gun and shot her lover down, madam.
    Miss Brooks regrets she’s unable to lunch today.

    When the mob came and got her
    and dragged her from the jail, madam,
    they strung her up
    on the willow across the way.
    And the moment before she died
    she lifted up her lovely head and cried, madam.
    Miss Brooks regrets she’s unable to lunch.
    Miss Brooks regrets she’s unable to lunch today.

  5. Philip Primeau
    January 6th, 2010 @ 4:33 pm

    That said, those polls — and his analyses thereof — are idiotic.

  6. Joe
    January 6th, 2010 @ 4:33 pm

    Michelle Malkin will definitely be called a racist over this. Because she an American of Philippino background who did not do “the right thing” and join the Democratic Party. And that vampire mask does not look sexy twighlight or true blood vampire but more scary 30 days of night (obvious an analogy for Sarah Palin) or orcs/urak hai (which is clearly a racial reference because Lord of the Rings was so racist).

  7. Philip Primeau
    January 6th, 2010 @ 11:33 am

    That said, those polls — and his analyses thereof — are idiotic.

  8. Joe
    January 6th, 2010 @ 11:33 am

    Michelle Malkin will definitely be called a racist over this. Because she an American of Philippino background who did not do “the right thing” and join the Democratic Party. And that vampire mask does not look sexy twighlight or true blood vampire but more scary 30 days of night (obvious an analogy for Sarah Palin) or orcs/urak hai (which is clearly a racial reference because Lord of the Rings was so racist).

  9. uberVU - social comments
    January 6th, 2010 @ 12:03 pm

    Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by rsmccain: @bccohan Are Vampire Masks Racist? http://bit.ly/4I7oq1 ALSO How Bad Does David Brooks Suck? [] #teaparty #tcot [] PLZ ReTweet…

  10. kc duffy
    January 6th, 2010 @ 6:13 pm

    “a potential for problems if it can’t sophisticate its tone and message”

    We don’t need sophisticated tone and message. We need Constitution-believing LEADERS with backbone and balls.

  11. kc duffy
    January 6th, 2010 @ 1:13 pm

    “a potential for problems if it can’t sophisticate its tone and message”

    We don’t need sophisticated tone and message. We need Constitution-believing LEADERS with backbone and balls.

  12. JSF
    January 6th, 2010 @ 6:39 pm

    Hey, even Goths look down on vampires (but not the ones from the film “Near Dark,”).

    It is the Gonzo Journalists, Goths, Activists and Bloggers who are the forefront of the Tea Party movement, not the Brooks’, Conor’s or Frums.

    Final push for your press pass today — Let me know when you’re up in The Valley (suffering from a light Tip Jar myself today).

  13. JSF
    January 6th, 2010 @ 1:39 pm

    Hey, even Goths look down on vampires (but not the ones from the film “Near Dark,”).

    It is the Gonzo Journalists, Goths, Activists and Bloggers who are the forefront of the Tea Party movement, not the Brooks’, Conor’s or Frums.

    Final push for your press pass today — Let me know when you’re up in The Valley (suffering from a light Tip Jar myself today).

  14. Victor Morton
    January 6th, 2010 @ 6:59 pm

    Brooks’ elitist notion that Tea Party people are ignorant, angry rabble …

    #1 is right, this is BDS … Brooks never says that, though you have your anti-dog-whistle-ears set to twitch any time Brooks says anything about education. If you can’t see that the term “the educated class” is not a synonym for “education” or “smartness” but rather a term of almost Marxist post-Veblen contempt or at least bemusement … just stop reading the guy.

  15. Victor Morton
    January 6th, 2010 @ 1:59 pm

    Brooks’ elitist notion that Tea Party people are ignorant, angry rabble …

    #1 is right, this is BDS … Brooks never says that, though you have your anti-dog-whistle-ears set to twitch any time Brooks says anything about education. If you can’t see that the term “the educated class” is not a synonym for “education” or “smartness” but rather a term of almost Marxist post-Veblen contempt or at least bemusement … just stop reading the guy.

  16. dwintnf
    January 6th, 2010 @ 8:33 pm

    The mask is a very creative piece of art.

    I just want to know if you had an in-and-out hamburger yet?

  17. dwintnf
    January 6th, 2010 @ 3:33 pm

    The mask is a very creative piece of art.

    I just want to know if you had an in-and-out hamburger yet?

  18. James J. Pirretti
    January 6th, 2010 @ 9:03 pm

    Brooks bring to mind the great saying of Spiro Agnew: “an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as ‘intellectuals’.” Brooks fits this bill perfectly.

  19. James J. Pirretti
    January 6th, 2010 @ 4:03 pm

    Brooks bring to mind the great saying of Spiro Agnew: “an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as ‘intellectuals’.” Brooks fits this bill perfectly.

  20. Andrew Sullivan
    January 6th, 2010 @ 10:52 pm

    The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

    What do you think of those apples Mr. Fascist McCain?

  21. Andrew Sullivan
    January 6th, 2010 @ 5:52 pm

    The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

    What do you think of those apples Mr. Fascist McCain?

  22. Bob Belvedere
    January 8th, 2010 @ 2:33 am

    Quoted from and Linked to at:
    Fisking Me Softly

  23. Bob Belvedere
    January 7th, 2010 @ 9:33 pm

    Quoted from and Linked to at:
    Fisking Me Softly