You've Got to Be Kidding Me

Today's Broder column is a travesty of punditry justice. A somewhat longish excerpt:

That these Republicans [McCain, Graham, John Warner, and Bush's Whore, Powell] -- and others [i.e., other "good" Republicans] -- were ready to join the Democrats in rejecting Bush's plan caused the White House to scramble for alternatives and House Republican leaders to postpone a scheduled vote [on Bush's torture bill]. The revolt goes well beyond three men.

What it really signals is a new movement in this country -- what you could rightly call the independence party. Its unifying theme can be found in the Declaration of Independence's language when Jefferson invoked "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind."

When Powell wrote that Bush's demand would compound the world's "doubt [about] the moral basis of our fight against terrorism," he was appealing to Jefferson's standard.

It is a standard this administration has flagrantly rejected. Bush was elected twice, over Democrats Al Gore and John Kerry, whose know-it-all arrogance rankled Midwesterners such as myself. The country thought Bush was a pleasant, down-to-earth guy who would not rock the boat. Instead, swayed by some inner impulse or the influence of Dick Cheney, he has proved to be lawless and reckless. He started a war he cannot finish, drove the government into debt and repeatedly defied the Constitution.

Now, however, you can see the independence party forming -- on both sides of the aisle. They are mobilizing to resist not only Bush but also the extremist elements in American society -- the vituperative, foul-mouthed bloggers on the left and the doctrinaire religious extremists on the right who would convert their faith into a whipping post for their opponents.

The center is beginning to fight back.

Well, those of us associated with the vituperative, foul-mouthed left are happy that this "center" is finally joining the fight against, in Broder's words, the "lawless and reckless," Constitution-defying Bush-Cheney administration. I might add, though, that it's about time. Or, to be foul-mouthed about it, maybe I should say that it's about fucking time.

Broder's nostalgic longing for bipartisanship and centrism is so wrong-headed, he might as well be arguing for a return to the principles of Whiggism. If the "center" in American politics consists of three conservative Republicans, then the day of cross-aisle moderates working together are truly over. That's not to say that there aren't plenty of moderate Democrats--one might even argue that that "know-it-all" Al Gore is one of them. But haven't we seen a long train of abuses of the principle of bipartisan cooperation? What have moderates, even Republican moderates, won in the last seven years? Maybe Bush's 2000 schtick, the "uniter not a divider" persona, won Broder's heart. But that's why, like almost every other pundit, Broder has no credibility left.

Broder should be fired. Time has passed the old man by.