Columnist On Columnist Crime

A while back, David (Look! A Man Barbecuing!) Brooks tried to pry Ronald Reagan loose from ol' Dutch's inexcusable 1980 campaign kickoff speech in which he talked about (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) "states rights" in Philadelphia, Mississippi, about half a mile from where they'd dug Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney out from under the dam.
Well, Bobo's colleagues seem a mite perturbed. Krugman buried him on a blog a few days ago and today, Bob Herbert applies the final cockpunch.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/13/opinion/13herbert.html?_r=2&th&emc=th&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

I love the fact that the NYT seems to be turning into the Village Voice circa 1970. More writer's feuds please!

 

A cockpunch would be less painful to Brooks than the beating that Herbert applied.

 

This must be wrong. People, of whom many weren't yet born when Reagan was president, keep telling me the Gipper was grandfatherly and warm. In fact Reagan's memory seems to get warmer and warmer as his dead body gets colder and colder.

 

I love how Herbert buried him with facts and logic.

Brooks column was whiny.

 

You talk with a lot of 18-year olds about Ronald Reagan?

Or was that just a bit of message board hyperbole?

 

I believe it was message board sarcasm.

 

The second part was.

He should have just pointed out the fact that Reagan was a soulless old piece of mauve cardigan and left it at that.

 

Come on. Give the man his props. He had a friendly smile and nice hair.

Can we get a Kanye West verdict on Reagan?

 

Kanye'll just tell him not to get his tummy tucked.

 

Weak.

 

Stuck-in-bed-after-a-tummy-tuck-weak, or Gary Burghoff's-left-arm-weak?

 

Insensitive-toward-a-man-who-just-lost-his-mother-weak.