bobo brooks

* bobo on lehrer:

"MARK SHIELDS: That's right. But what we have not seen is the longstanding political momentum or traction gained from the capture of Zarqawi, from the elections in Iraq, and all the rest. So I think that's the question that remains politically at home.

MARGARET WARNER: Do you see it that way, at least short-term advantage Republicans?

DAVID BROOKS, Columnist, New York Times: I guess so. I guess, short term, disadvantage politicians. I mean, I think what struck a lot of people about what happened this week was that they had arrested the guys at 2:00 a.m., and by 2:05, the Democrats and Republicans are issuing highly partisan attacks on each other.

And it was just -- you know, give it a day. Let people throw out their toothpastes. And so I think that was just over-political. Give us a break for a day."

* bobo on lehrer:

"DAVID BROOKS: The Republican argument will be, "We were attacked by it. We have this enemy, this big enemy of Islamic fascism. We were attacked, and our philosophy has always been: Let's take the battle to them."

"We are taking it to them. We tried in Iraq, and it didn't work. But we are still the pedal-to-the-metal guys when it comes to fighting these people. And we're the pedal-to-the-metal guys when it comes to surveillance, attacking. Everything, we try to do everything. And so trust us in the long run, because we're the pedal-to-the-metal guys.""

i love lehrer - partly because it's the best i've got (outside of the beeb's hardtalk) - but also cos it's a classic demonstration of 'the best we've got.' - the concept of bobo being (half of) the resident brains trust is so absurd. the text above probably doesnt do justice to the fact that he is actually defending 'pedal-to-the-metal' - and with a shrug of the shoulders kinda acknowledges that 'hey - it didnt work - but at least we killed 200,000 people in our attempt. no harm, no foul.'