David Brooks on PBS - Bush failing too obviously even for Republicans

Did y'all see David Brooks on Newshour, Friday night? He was pissed with Bush for failing to show leadership.

It was so clear to me, watching Bush after he broke off his vacation and decided (or took direction) to show that he was doing something and Being Presidential, that I didn't see leadership. I saw a middle manager. He praised his direct reports (e.g., the head of FEMA). He admitted no fault. He spoke disconnected sound bites, as usual, and one of them was that the results weren't acceptable. There was no acceptance of responsibility - but the people demand that someone be blamed, so he blamed -- no one in particular.

This is what happens when you have a middle manager - and an inept one, at that. He covers his ass and he plays puppet, speaking lines that don't require him to take a deep breath to get through them or to spend any time thinking to remember them.

Will this be the end of the nonsense in Washington - or will the marginal majority that supported Bush start making excuses for him? We'll have to wait and see.

We finally see some people pointing this out, but the ones I heard were on NPR, and my Republican friends tell me that NPR is totally left wing. I think they're talking about Pacifica Radio, but I guess we have different definitions of left and right. To me, NPR is right of center, as is PBS.

Here's Linda Wertheimer giving a commentary on leadership this morning.