Somewhat Shorter David Brooks

From the New York Times:

Wow, are there are lot of sleazebags in the Republican party!

As we've often taken David Brooks to task for the things he has written, we will now note, simply, soberly and with great begrudging, that he was pretty much on the mark today.

Matthew Yglesias at TAPPED, however, can't resist chiming in with:

No doubt the number of people who've engaged in actually illegal sleazy conduct is rather limited and probably doesn't affect all that many politicians per se.

But if you're worried about the sleazy dealings of Abramoff et al., it seems that you should be even more worried about the fact that the entire Republican Party's legislative agenda has become little more than water-carrying for K Street. Each and every Republican legislator, along with the White House, is deeply implicated in that scandal.

Roughly speaking, what you've got is a Republican Party that's abandoned small government as a principle but won't give up the tax-cut crack pipe either. The result is a "pro-business" party, rather than a properly ideological one, and it should be no surprise that sleaze follows in its wake.