During his weekly online chat [1]
with liberal editorial-page editor turned liberal New York Times columnist Gail Collins,
"conservative" Times columnist David Brooks praised Dick Darman,
director of the Office of Management and Budget for the first President
Bush, who angered conservatives with the 1990 budget deal that raised
taxes.
For that and other confessions by Brooks of his affection for the good things the federal government does, Collins anointed the Times' putative conservative columnist with high praise indeed:
David Brooks: So though I'm skeptical of many of the things government does, I still try to defend the craft of governance. After all, Haiti has 10,000 N.G.O.s, all doing the Lord's work. But unless there is good government, you are struggling against the wind.
Gail Collins: This is why Barack Obama likes you so much. (Admit it, when you're around he ignores every other journalist in the room.) It's because he sees you as the kind of sane Republican he was planning to be bipartisan with.
- Clay Waters is director of Times Watch [2]. You can follow him on Twitter [3].