In recent days any number of media outlets have noted the attacks on Sarah Palin and John McCain coming from noted intellectuals within the Republican Party, such as David Brooks and Peggy Noonan. Some have argued that this is yet another sign of the campaign’s disarray; William Kristol at the New York Times, on the other hand, has argued that these intellectuals are the wet blankets sipping Shirley Temples at every red state beach party, and that their disdain is a sure sign that a candidate is on the right track. Somebody put on a 45 and let’s do the twist!
Last night on the Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert took another tack, positing Brooks, Noonan and David Frum (who wrote the "Axis of Evil" speech) as the organs that have allowed the rotting Frankenstein monster which is the Republican party today to continue to exist.
I’m posting the whole video below. Here’s the heart of Colbert’s critique:
"While these boo-hoo-acrats hold a pity party over the state of the Republican party politic, they seem to have forgotten what the Republican party’s body was made of: it’s many different body parts stitched together -- fiscal conservatives sutured onto Christian fundamentalists, held together with a patchwork of neo-con foreign policy hawks. Then in 2000, they bolted George Bush’s head on, and brought it to life with 10000 volts of ’gay people want to marry your baby.’
Now, for the record, folks, I’m not saying that intellectuals like Noonan and Brooks and Frum are Dr. Frankenstein (he eventually felt remorse). ... No, they are not Dr. Frankenstein. I’m just saying -- and I mean this in the nicest possible way -- they are hunks of dead flesh sewn into the walking corpse of the Republican party.
Think about it -- it could not have lived long without them. They were vital organs. Noonan was the larynx -- she has long given voice to the monster. Who can forget her 2004 column, ’Fire Bad, Bush Good"? Brooks was, let’s say, the kidneys, because he processed the creature’s waste into New York Times editorials....
Now, maybe these turncoats just don’t like who the monster has chosen for its bride. Or maybe they’re horrified at what it has done to Igor [photo shown of McCain]. But the point is, they have known the score all along. They were happy to support using fear to frighten the villagers into giving tax cuts to the guy who owned the castle. And they would gladly go along with creation science, as long as it would help them create a new regime in Iraq.
But now they are rejecting this thing that they have long helped exist. For whatever reason, they are suddenly afraid -- afraid that it’s not working this time."
I believe the scientific term is, "Oh, snap."
Jim McDermott, SJ
