Bobo’s latest mash note to Rubio-Ryan was less of a bodice-rippper than usual but oh what a last line:
If Ryan and Rubio do emerge as the party’s two leaders, it will be the wonkiest leadership team in our lifetime.
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greennotGreen
I was just getting up to refill my coffee cup, but luckily I hadn’t done it before I read this. Thus, I spared my keyboard.
SFAW
I think Bobo meant “wankiest.”
BGinCHI
Brooks is exactly right.
In the last 50 years the leadership of the Republican Party has been characterized by complete and utter fucking stupidity and a lack of curiosity about the way governance works.
Finally some honesty.
Satby
Not that he hasn’t written pure garbage most times, but that line should be a career ender right there.
At this point I wonder if Bono is just writing to troll Kthug.
Satby
@Satby: Bobo and why can’t I edit anymore? FYWP
BGinCHI
Remember, if you are dim-witted, sycophantic, and privileged, you are not going to have any patience with people who actually know things and can demonstrate a record of intellectual accomplishment.
japa21
First time I’ve seen that term used as a pejorative to that extent. Oh, he didn’t mean it that way? Bobo is even more delusional than I thought, and that took some real doing.
Cermet
This is total delusion or just his need to be a fox-news whore? Oops: realize the last two words are equivalent …
NotMax
Wonky
adjective, wonkier, wonkiest.
1. British Slang.
a. shaky, groggy, or unsteady.
b. unreliable; not trustworthy.
2. Slang. stupid; boring; unattractive.
Source
scav
um, ok.
ETA: see also NotMax :)
ETA: and Playpus. Hat Trick!?!
Platypus
He’s right, actually. “Wonkiest” can be a superlative of either “wonk” or “wonky”. So, what does “wonky” mean?
(1) Crooked; off center; askew.
(2) Unsteady; shaky.
(3) Not working correctly; faulty.
Yup. Nailed it.
JGabriel
@SFAW:
Dammit, that’s what I was gonna post! Kudos for getting there first.
germy shoemangler
@SFAW:
Bobo’s column should be named “J.O.I.”
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
It’s going to be a long day. Dirk has been acting sick for a day and a half, so I brought him in to the emergency room. It turns out that he has bladder stones, one of which is stuck in his urethra. The vet is going to try to push it back into his bladder. If that’s successful, he’ll be staying here for a couple of days to stabilize before surgery to remove them. If it doesn’t work, he’ll be undergoing emergency surgery today. He has a heart murmur, for pretty much his whole life, which makes things extra tricky.
Thank god I have health insurance for the cats, because this is going to be thousands of dollars.
Cermet
Also, http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ points out that yes, the budget can get hijacked next year as I feared. Due to the Republican Ex-speaker’s molest young boys rule (aka Hastert), the thugs will surely kill the budget process. Only the debt ceiling is off the table.
tinare
@BGinCHI:
Yeah, it’s a low bar and shallow pool that we’re talking about here.
Satby
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: oh man, good luck for Dirk and you!
tinare
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
Oh gosh, sending good thoughts your way. I have a cat with a heart murmur well so I feel your anxiety regarding any possibility of surgery. Hoping for the best outcome for you!
Elizabelle
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Good luck to you and Dirk. Poor little kitty.
BGinCHI
@Cermet: Pelosi should say that every time she is in front of a camera:
“The Republicans are failing to pass legislation due to a rule conceived by a pedophile. Why won’t the House leadership showing us where they have been inappropriately touching the American people?”
Belafon
@Cermet: The Republican leadership will probably just pass continuing resolutions like they’ve done before. Taking the debt ceiling off the table prevents any shutdowns.
beltane
Earlier this week, a group of Catholic theologians implored the NYT to stop Ross Douthat from writing on issues that deal with Catholic theology, a subject he knows little about. A similar group of people should implore the NYT to pull BoBo’s column altogether because the man is either an idiot or he plays the part of an idiot quite convincingly (I’ll go with Option B).
Bokonon
Oh, so now we are going to start pretending that Marco Rubio is smart, and that anyone who denies his awesome intellect is just a left wing partisan meanie? The same way that they did with Ryan?
By “wonk”, does Brooks mean “shallow politician that is a wholly owned and operated subsidiary of the Koch brothers?”
tony in san diego
Brooks has got nothing. Nothing.
bystander
Since some of you have spared me the task of reading Bobo in the original Gibberish, I’ll ask again of any Yiddish aficionados:
cmorenc
There, fixed.
Betty Cracker
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Damn. Hope the critter comes though okay.
EZSmirkzz
Does anyone remember when John McCain was at 8% in the polling in January of 2008?
Here we are 8 years later and no one cares what Bobo writes.
These are very sad days for our Burkean republic. Very sad.
Very, very sad.
Platypus
@scav: Somewhat surprisingly, etymologists are apparently unsure about where “wank” came from. Therefore, looking especially at the Dutch root (“wankel” ~= “shaky”) in particular, it appears that “wonky” and “wanky” might actually be the same thing. I really do learn something every day, even if it’s totally useless knowledge.
cmorenc
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
When the GOP discovers that Obamacare extends to subsidized cat health insurance, we’re well and truly fucked!
Neech
@Satby:
Here’s Kthug’s reply: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/30/policy-and-character/?module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog%20Main&contentCollection=Opinion&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs®ion=Body
Culture of Truth
They loved Bush and Cheney for their anti-intellectual manliness. Now after 7 years after bashing Obama for being too nerdy, cool, aloof, and brainy but weak, they want some of that sweet geek-love.
It could work, because people automatically assume Republicans are tougher, and Rubio and Ryan can play smart people on tv. But no one doubts Hillary is highly intelligent and experienced, and she’s plenty tough and hawkish, so I suspect the GOP will has misread the electorate, yet again.
Thoughtful Today
Paul Ryan makes stuff up. Easier to outsource that takedown to Krugman:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Krugman+Paul+Ryan
Rubio?
cmorenc: “Rubio is a smoother, more polished version of Eddie Haskell”
What’s the updated version of Eddie Haskell these days?
Elizabelle
Headlines on NYTimes op ed page; Bobo: The Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio Moment.
Krugman: Springtime for Grifters.
Ryan
@BGinCHI: I’m not sure you have the same definition of honesty that most others do.
SFAW
@Platypus:
Welcome to my world.
lowercase steve
@NotMax:
Very different than the meaning in the US!
Also, Rubio and Ryan and likely literate so I suppose Brooks is technically correct.
Darkrose
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Thinking good thoughts for you and Dirk. Ogdred had two stones removed a couple of weeks ago and he’s running around the house like a kitten since the Cone of Shame came off last week; hopefully everything will be relatively easy for your boy.
Patricia Kayden
“it will be the wonkiest leadership team in our lifetime”
Depends on how you define “wonkiest”, I guess.
SFAW
@germy shoemangler:
I’m sure I’m going to regret this, but … translation? (If it’s the Urban Dictionary definition – which would make sense – no need to germsplain further. If it’s something else – inquiring minds and all that.)
BGinCHI
@Ryan: Check to see if your snark detector is set to register “low bar satire.”
MattF
@Elizabelle: Essay question! Compare and contrast.
boatboy_srq
Translation: nobody who’s dug up dirt on him has left Tallahassee, he’s great at delivering memorized material and he’s too young to have stepped in enough GOTeaturds to stink of them.
Clearly, to Brooks, the illusion of sanity is far more important than sanity itself.
bemused
Snort. Our 2 yr old granddaughter is learning her counting numbers. It was adorable when she counted to 10, couldn’t remember what came next and said 14 but we applauded her anyway.
Republicans believe or pretend to believe just throwing random numbers together that don’t add up makes someone a brilliant wonk. Ryan and Rubio the wonkiest leadership team? I can’t even….
Does Brooks actually believe the crap he writes?
Jeffro
@tony in san diego:Oh he’s got something all right: it’s called lying.
The sheer audacity…it doesn’t matter that their plans are wildly unaffordable? What matters are the ‘signals’?? Well sure, if your intent is to describe our current problems in the same manner as Democrats do, yet do the exact opposite when it comes to actually solving those problems.
Brooks tops that by going on to describe basic Republican crap – block grants back to the states for social programs, for example – as if they are some wildly innovative new proposals. He wraps up with:
Brooksie, please explain one more time how Rubio’s “product” is any different than the usual GOP b.s.???
Ian
True only if born January 22 2017 and they win the election.
Elizabelle
@bemused: I think the New York Times needs an intervention.
Something’s been going really wrong with that paper. Their public editor has had some whopperesque columns, and lets the Times off, on matters readers complain about.
Democratic derangement syndrome, when you’re trying to appeal to advertisers and not offend the easily offended Wall Street crowd?
jon
Whatever the origin of wank, wonk comes from Wonka. But in the Republican’s case it doesn’t mean a genius, but instead it references the angry capitalist who says “YOU GET NOTHING!” to a poor person, citing self-serving contract law.
Skippy-san
Wonk only if being committed to mass cruelty can be considered “wonky”. Psychopath is more appropriate.
Germy Shoemangler
@SFAW: My J.O.I. comment back there was my nadir.
Punchy
With as much hair as Rubio has, they’d be the Wookiee-est.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
Holy crap that’s the funniest line Bobo has ever written. Not probably how it intended it to be taken, but the idea that either Ryan or Rubio is wonky has me doubled over with laughter.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
The vet was able to push the stone back into Dirk’s bladder. So they have him on an IV and are monitoring him to make sure his kidneys return to proper functioning. They will still need to perform surgery` to remove the stones, but they can do it when he’s in better shape and not under such a rush. Hopefully that can happen in a couple of days.
She’s going to call me this afternoon with an update and, hopefully, a schedule. With that, I’m going to bed.
benw
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: sucks, man. Best wishes!
@Elizabelle: if we accelerated K-thug’s and Brooks’ posts to relativistic speeds and collided them, could we produce a Higgs boson?
bemused
@Elizabelle:
Brooks wrote it’s “too early” to get worked up about the candidate’s “wildly unaffordable” plans as if those plans won’t be just as wildly unaffordable a year from now which he will cheerlead for.
Brooks and the rest aren’t even bothering with pretense anymore.
Anyone know if Brooks is getting pummeled in comments? I can’t bring myself to look yet.
gogol's wife
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
I’m thinking of you and Dirk and hoping everything goes well.
WereBear
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: That’s good news, compared to the alternative. Better if it’s not rushed. Best to you and Dirk!
Bobby Thomson
I disagree with the characterization of Rysn as a policy wonk but I at least see its origins. How the hell do you throw a nerd skin on Rubio? That’s like calling Dan Quayle (or John Edwards) a wonk.
MattF
@jon: In fact, ‘wonk’ was current slang at Yale in the early ’70s, so it must have originated earlier. And the OED cites a 1962 quote from Sports Illustrated.
auntie beak
so all it takes to qualify as “wonky” (in the american english sense; you guys are right, the british definition fits MUCH better) is a bunch of bullshit with magic asterisks? seriously? that’s just sad, that is. talk about your “soft bigotry of low expectations!”
kindness
The NY Times have lost their way. Used to be they were the staunch defenders of Northeastern Republicanism. Fiscally conservative but socially liberal. Now the Times just parrots what ever the Wall Street Journal says which pretty much means defending the Republican party as it stands.
I only pay for a Times when I’m visiting NY. I refuse to ever pay for a WSJ. Why give money to an organization that is out to kill me?
BGinCHI
Brooks reminds me of Cubs fans.
No matter how shitty the trades and acquisitions in the off-season, the hardcore folks are always ready to tell you how this is going to be the year.
What is it about people who will not accept the reality that your team just sucks at the thing they are playing?
dedc79
EMF. Wow. I will shamefully admit to having bought that album. I don’t think I ever listened to any of the other tracks though….
dedc79
@boatboy_srq:
This. After each debate, Rubio has been praised for his delivery. I don’t get it. Each time it’s been crystal clear he has rehearsed three or four 60 second rants and been instructed to find a way to use them regardless of whether they’re relevant to the question asked.
MattF
@kindness: I disagree. The Times’ political news coverage is a disgrace, but their editorial policy is conventionally liberal.
japa21
@BGinCHI: Except this year was different and next year will be (or should be) as well. Eventually, it works. So they may only be correct once every 110 years, but they will tell you that makes them experts. Brooks is that way. He was correct once (not sure when, but pure odds says it had to happen once) and therefore everything he says should be taken as gospel.
Frankensteinbeck
Abusive thought (‘I’m hurting you to help you.’) is central to traditional conservative thought. Brooks is just showing off one side of that. He KNOWS that the Republican Party loves him, and this violent phase is just a phase. There is nothing he finds sexier than a candidate who signals that they’re a mean shit, but not too mean. Sullivan shows off this thinking a lot.
@Culture of Truth:
Serious question: Why do people think Hillary is a hawk? The only evidence I’ve seen is one article where she said she’d have armed Syrian Rebels more (the weakest of sauces) accompanied by the writer’s ecstatic fantasies that she’ll repudiate Obama’s peacenik ways any day now. On the campaign trail she boasts about peaceful resolutions with Iran. What am I missing?
@boatboy_srq:
The illusion of all those things is more important to him than fact. They sound like what he desperately wants to believe exists, which includes proof that shafting the poor is the mature, intelligent choice. That Ryan was a useless drag for Mitt and Rubio was a laughing stock after his last national speech… he doesn’t want to see it. It will be Different This Time.
benw
@dedc79: For some reason I bought the CD maxi-single with 5 versions of that EMF song – even though I wasn’t a huge fan. WTF younger me?
The silver lining is that the 6th track, EMF Live at the Bilson, absofuckinglutely kills. I still have that track in some of my playlists.
WereBear
@dedc79: You are listening to people who are paid to lie.
dedc79
@benw: five different versions? wow. I’m wondering why I didn’t just buy the single.
Any hope on the Mets front? They desperately need to score some runs early in the game, and that means Cespedes has to start making better contact.
burnspbesq
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Your comment inappropriately conflates two things that ought to be thought of separately. Being wrong about every policy issue on which you’ve ever taken a stand doesn’t preclude being a poliy wonk. However, it means that whenever you take a stand on a policy issue, Congress would be well advised to do exactly the opposite.
dedc79
@WereBear: Have sworn off all cable news (and never been happier), so most of this stuff only gets to me second-hand. But yes, they’re all paid shills for someone. And there’s a desperateness among the political punditry to find a not-completely-insane Republican to embrace. I tend to think Rubio is as crazy as the rest though.
Mike in NC
Rubio is flavor-of-the-month for rightwing pundits like David Brooks and Kathleen Parker, who are feverishly blowing him kisses.
After Marco crashes he’ll make a comeback in the FOX reboot of Fantasy Island.
Amir Khalid
It needs to be said: anyone who thinks Ryan and Rubio are wonks is a gull. Besides, consider their political position. Ryan is the new Speaker in a House where an extreme faction in the Republican caucus expects to control him. Rubio is a middle-of-the-pack runner in the 2016 nomination race, a third or fourth choice for the party’s establishment-candidate mantle.
burnspbesq
@dedc79:
Royals pitchers have to bat. That limits their ability to string hits together the way they did against deGrom.
Mets offense realistically can’t be any worse than it was in Games 1 and 2.
Citi Field is going to be a cauldron. If home field advantage is a thing (and it might be–balls that died on the warning track at Kaufman are going out of Citi) …
GregB
Has any gaping asshole outside of the beltway ever used the term wonk?
Also, I am looking forward to Marco Rubio’s appearance on Dancing with the Stars.
catclub
@Belafon:
Yes and No. They can still cause shutdowns by failing to pass an Omnibus continuing resolution – that is how all the other shutdowns happen.
Samuel Knight
Wonk to Wank correction is spot on. Bobo is just doing his propaganda schtik.
Obvious retort is Clinton Gore, both clearly knew and know a lot more about almost any issue one can name than do either Rubio or Ryan.
What makes it more flagrant of course is that Rubio clearly isn’t that bright, and Ryan just makes up his numbers.
Germy Shoemangler
@GregB:
Will he criticize the judges?
Cervantes
@MattF:
Could not agree more.
Really depends on how you define your terms. For example, just think about their editorials on Palestine/Israel, or Iraq, or various other aspects of US foreign policy.
Keith G
Remember, cheerleaders gotta cheer lead.
There were those pundants who praised Bill Clinton as being the first black president while he was leading the fights to change the rules for aid to families in need, change the way banks were regulated (allowing them to be better able to create predatory loans), and change the way we incarcerated citizens.
Brooks has a worldview. He writes essays to cheerlead that worldview. He is definitely more wrong than he is correct, but I’m not sure if that makes him an exceptional case.
It does make him a sad case .
Cervantes
@burnspbesq
Not sure I agree. I think “wonk” connotes not being a complete ignoramus.
Anyway, unrelated, “wonk” is “know,” backwards.
Ruckus
@Frankensteinbeck:
You know that she voted for Iraq don’t you? Doesn’t that make her the warhawkest of them all? Never mind that she’s apologized and said she was wrong, that doesn’t count.
What I don’t get about the Clinton haters is the inability to see growth. She is not the same person she was 20-25 yrs ago, just like a lot of the rest of us. Will she make a good leader and a good president? I didn’t think she would be as good as the person we elected in 2008 but I do now. And given the opposition and who else you got…….
Now all you Sanders lovers out there, his financial policies are great, but he seems to me to be a mile wide and a foot deep. And his policy ideas will not just be a hard sell, I’d say impossible to get in a democracy in the condition ours is in now. Great policy, any ideas about execution of same? And from a long time politician on the national scene. Yes, he’s trying to sell them but there is no road to get there. It’s like going to single payer in one leap, great idea in the abstract, too many roadblocks and land mines in the way. There’s just no way to connect the dots.
burnspbesq
@Cervantes:
You may have stumbled on something there.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@burnspbesq: By that definition maybe Ryan qualifies as an always wrong policy wonk, but at least he’s written some GOP proposed budgets and such. Rubio has literally done nothing in the Senate. If he cared enough about policy to be a policy “wonk” you’d think he would have introduced and sponsored a few bills that would affect policy. I guess he did try once, on immigration, before deciding to follow your “always wrong” guidance on that issue and vote against the bill he sponsored.
Cervantes
@Ruckus:
Perhaps you can show me the apology.
This isn’t one:
slag
I, for one, look forward to the Ryan-Rubio reality tv show. I hear the theme song now…
Cervantes
@burnspbesq:
I’m pretty good at stumbling.