Jim Sleeper on David Brooks

Jim writes:

This time, the choice facing Brooks is too stark and time-bound for his usual gyrations. He can maintain his intellectual self-respect only by breaking openly with McCain/Palin in the next couple of weeks.

I wrote here months ago that I could almost imagine him jumping to Obama, as some conservative Republicans have done because they've concluded that more Bush-style governance will destroy both Republicans and the republic. Surely David Brooks, who has made a career of being liberals' favorite conservative, can do likewise.

Then again, breaking so starkly with Republicans would cost Brooks his comfortable raison d'etre and niche opposite Mark Shields on PBS and E.J. Dionne on NPR. I don't think that he has enough integrity to renounce decisively what McCain and, more generally, conservative republicans have become. I think he's gotten himself stuck in that fold.