...let's just focus on Broder's most problematic point. = hackneyed

Q.E.D.

broder is a loyal american to the country that lives in his head -- and maybe the one that signs his paycheck. but so far as reality is concerned, broder is a traitor or has needed neurological testing sometime ago...

If you'd prefer to cut through the nonsense, two nearly identical columns this morning from Frank Rich of The New York Times and David Sirota in Salon (posted Saturday) on the millions of dollars steered by Wall Streeters to Lawrence Summers, Rahm Emanuel and other highups in the Obama administration who are now in charge of "cleaning up" the financial mess, with lists of multimillion dollar favors done in the last few weeks. Rich says we should all counter this by doing good works, which is a nice idea (I have some landscaping in mind), but Sirota frames his as an infomercial: "Graft! The biggest return for your investment in history!"

First of all, Broder needs to get his facts straight. We don't have a 2 party system in this country. We have by my count no fewer than 6 major parties.

1) Republican - Mono-culturally reactionary conservative
2) Democratic - Traditional liberal; Northeastern base
3) Democratic - Conservative; Southern base
4) Democratic - Techno-business/Social liberal; Pacific Coast base
5) Democratic - Labor/Social moderate; Northeast/Mid-West base
6) Democratic - Ethnic/Social moderate to conservative; Northeast/Mid-West base
7) Have I missed any?

Given its ideological diversity and penchant for circular firing squads, I think the Democratic party alone constitutes a true multi-party system. Throw in the Republicans and what else does Broder want?

Bob

To follow up on ericfree's comment, I would ask, why doesn't our President listen to Raghuram Rajan instead of Larry Summers? It was Summers who ridiculed Rajan's comment at a 2005 conference, when Mr Rajan predicted "that the rapid growth of finance had increased the risk of a 'catastrophic meltdown'" - (courtesy of Paul Krugman)

"Republican opposition was reinforced," not because political independents turned against the idea, but because the GOP lied, even after having been told the truth.

The fall of the Republic will be traced to the collapse of independent and effective journalism.

Instead of scrutinizing every paragraph in the piece, let's just focus on Broder's most problematic point.

We really can't scrutinize each paragraph, because most of them are looping themselves around the Pew Research numbers that show Obama's 61 point approval rating gap between the two parties, without even considering the actual numbers of D's and R's polled, and the diminished numbers of R's.

He would love to hold on to the idea that we continue to be politically divided 49% to 51%, with those percentages swaying with the independent vote. He simply cannot fathom that the American public has decided to move on. Every day, week, month that goes by and we see what both parties are offering to solve problems, those solutions or lack of solutions are what define the choices in supporting present and proposed legislation.

Broder goes to nonsensical effort to make hay connecting the Pew report to how he wishes the political landscape looks. I guess he needs a lot of hay for all those straw men he and his RW ilk like to make.

In researching David Broder, I've managed to go back all the way to 1969, to his column that May telling the Democrats how they had better start cooperating with Richard Nixon because he had the pulse of the country about the war and would therefore take care of everything very nicely if only the Democrats would stop carping at him.

If you read anything this idiot has written between May 1969 and today, it is always advice to Democrats that they should listen to the Republicans, who really do have the pulse of the country on any given subject, and that the Democrats will be successful if they cooperate in putting forward the Republican vision.

And given the benefit of hindsight, every one of these columns is WRONG! There is not one single issue he has written on where he had a clue what was going on, where he had the facts at hand and used them, and where events did not later demonstrate that doing the exact opposite of what he advised was the correct decision.

The man is not merely a hack, he is a Republican hack, no matter what his claim is otherwise. Just go look at his history, every time he takes the Republican position.

If this idiot had been in charge of the Washington Pest 40 years ago, Nixon would be President-For-Eternity.

Said this elsewhere, but it's what I want to say here too in reply to TCinLA, because I think s/he's right:

The Washington establishment journalists like who they like, and they don’t like who they don’t like.

The problem is that they pretend that’s journalism.

See? we all agree. I just love posting here because we all always agree. Always. Just like RedState. Only blue. Or whatever. Where exactly did Kevin Drum go?

I too have followed David Broder's vacuous vaporings for many years, and conclude that he has gone from from simple political hackery to senile dementia. Ill-informed, out-of-touch, intellectually incontinent and blatantly dishonest,he just keeps making messes wherever he goes. His opinions are bought and paid for with the currency of access. His columns are nothing more than regurgitated Republican press releases. No one takes him seriously; everyone recognizes him for what he is -- a stooge.

David Broder, an object lesson to us all: quit before you become irrelevant.

Ok, 'Pat'. I disagree. I think Broder is much more clever than folks think, in the same way a gutter snipe is clever. He's taken a modicum of intelligence and talent, a pervasive, insistent, and ruthless reductionism, and a willingness to distort and misrepresent through the royal "we" to extraordinary levels of influence. That in itself cannot be sneered at, just as the political achievements of BushCo cannot be sneered at. He's also a cancer, a parasite who will never quite kill the host, only cripple it enough so it's never healthy enough to rid itself of him and his kind. It's no wonder his positions consistently side with the Republicans. He is a conservative by nature; fear and anxiety clearly call the shots in his constricted psyche. In one sense he is very, very good, and that is his ability to truncate (I would say cripple) the inherent complexity of human discourse so as to maintain his position of influence, money, and power. He's a toad, or more accurately a toadie, and I hope Mr. Benen and others continue to bring his pathetic mewlings to light.

Pat, if you want to disagree, don't let us stop you.

I'll leave you to figure out where Kevin Drum went on your own.

Broder is a hack, OK...

But Steve saying that "cap and trade" is not expensive is ludicrous. The whole notion is to set up a system whereby the costs of externalities are included and borne by the parties involved. By definition this makes it significantly more expensive to "consume" carbon based energy... In fact IF the Democratic (or ANY) proposal does not make it more expensive then the proposal is a sham...

By the way, if prices go up significantly and consumers react by reducing consumption (of ANY good) that hardly means the good is not that much more expensive!

most carbon revenue would be rebated back to consumers

Does anybody believe that? Since it is a claim about the future, wouldn't you usually call it a "lie", such as claims that Obama and Holder will attempt to increase gun controls?

"Cap and trade" is popular among its supporters mainly because its true costs are unknown, and a rote belief that somehow consumers won't be stuck with the bill. A tax on carbon is much more transparent, which is why it is so unpopular.

There are two contradictory claims made in the link provided: (1) consumers will not pay more (even indirectly) because of "cap and trade"; (2) consumers of energy will consume less energy (thus capping total costs of energy) because their unit energy costs will increase.

Time will tell!

Broder is just talking bout himself. That's all he ever does. He thinks he is the "center", but the reality is the he is a conservative and that is why he doesn't like Obama.

Broder is not the dean of anything anymore. He's like the dean who got caught having sex with his students...no matter what comes out of his mouth his motivations are perverted. Broder doesn't know anything about independents or the American voters but like all he writes he assumes his opinions are the truth and what actually exists.

What independents are most upset about and reject the most are lying republicans and the dems who support them (Blue dogs). After all it is the blue dogs who are preventing these measures from passing through the senate by the reconciliation process which only requires 50 votes...the normal way votes are supposed to pass legislation...but Blue dogs want to make sure these bills get stopped by the filibuster.

Broder has been bought and sold no matter how subtle he tries to appear by being "centrist", he is a conservative right wing shrill. Maybe his comrades may think he is an important voice but more and more the public sees him for what he is...against a majority of Americans on all the issues.

btw...what really bothers me is a man standing next to his home burning down arguing about paying a dollar more to have firemen put the fire out because that would make it too expensive.

Of course it's going to cost more because we can't continue energy consumption and destroying the atmosphere at our present rate by denying we must do something about it no matter what the costs, or there will be a higher price further down the road. One only needs to stand on an overpass bridge and look down the freeway during rush hrs and imagine the same all over the country...and the world to know we are destroying our atmosphere at an alarming rate.

Only the profiteers are unconcerned...the millionaires and billionaires who visualize small well protected dome cities for themselves. We could have switched to electric cars years ago. We could have solar panels and wind mills covering the country by now...and here we are listening to republican lies to scare us into not passing cap-n-trade policies. Time for republicans to change their Num. 1 ques of how can I make money from this to what is in the best interest of the country. But that will never happen...republican conservatives are the obstructionists to good government having never proposed any legislation that was for the good of the people. TC in LA sums up not only the history of Broder but of the republican party as well...always wrong...always the wrong decisions.

This post about Broder is one of the reasons Political Animal is becoming a more infrequent stopping point during my daily cruise around the internet. Steve is just too worried about irrelevancies these days. Who cares about David Broder? Any of you? Why waste your time writing a post about a senile old man.

Broder should have retired a decade ago. That was about the last time he had an original thought. Frankly, these days he is just wasting our time.

There is one way that a cap-and-trade policy might not cost any money: alternative energy production in the US is rising at a faster rate than net energy use, and energy production from fossil fuels is declining. If these trends continue, then the cap may never be in force, and so carbon credits won't be traded. Something like that is what has happened in Europe. However, if that happens, then the govt will not take in any revenue either.

And because the GOP was allowed to lie by a complicit, complacent, and contributory mainstream media that not only fails to call out the lie but in fact reinforces it ... again, after having the truth pointed out.

The fall of the Republic will be traced to the collapse of independent and effective journalism.
Posted by: Bernard HP Gilroy

oh give me a break ... the world will not end because of one silly david broder column ... or his entire portfolio for that matter. some how this country managed to elect a democrat as president and and a democratic congress despite of the mis and mal feasance of the msm.

Thankyou bjobotts. (re: the btw post) David Broder, whoever, yadayada, the point is that we've (and that means the whole world) gotta do something bigtime and fast. Yes it's going to cost. Carbon tax, cap and trade, whatever, it doesn't really matter. Leadership is explaining this to the public and getting on with it. OK, electric cars, (all-electric) maybe not exactly. Maybe billions into energy efficiency to force morons (for example my landlord) not convinced by the carbon tax/cap and trade would be more effective. We have to figure it out and do what it takes stat. Barry, this means you. Let's get on with it.

How can there be "two-party hegemony"?

I have a question. Is Broder just stupid? Or does he think the rest of us are stupid?

Because it's one or the other.

I quit reading his ridiculous gabble decades ago, when it was obvious that he was just a shill for the Ruling Class. He's become worse and worse. Now to the point where he's a pathetic intellectually dishonest lightweight who should do us all a favor and retire. He has gone on WAY past his time.