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David Brooks: A Republican Senator Put "His Hand on My Inner Thigh" for a "Whole" Dinner Party

Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress at 6:00 AM on July 11, 2009.


Brooks says politicians are all emotional freaks of one sort or another.

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Earlier this week, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote about how “the dignity code” has been “completely obliterated” in Washington, DC. Discussing the concept on MSNBC today, Brooks recalled how he “sat next to a Republican senator once at dinner and he had his hand on my inner thigh the whole time”:

BROOKS: You know, all three of us spend a lot of time covering politicians and I don’t know about you guys, but in my view, they’re all emotional freaks of one sort or another. They’re guaranteed to invade your personal space, touch you. I sat next to a Republican senator once at dinner and he had his hand on my inner thigh the whole time. I was like, ehh, get me out of here.

HARWOOD: What?

BROOKS: I can only imagine what happens to you guys.

O’DONNELL: Sorry, who was that?

BROOKS: I’m not telling you, I’m not telling you.

Brooks said that he has “spoken to a lot of young women who are Senate staffers and they’ll have these middle age guys who are sort of in the middle of a mid-life crisis. Emotionally needy, they don’t know how to do it and sort of like these St. Bernards drooling everywhere.” Watch it:

Transcript:

O’DONNELL: What, what’s happened?

BROOKS: You know, all three of us spend a lot of time covering politicians and I don’t know about you guys, but in my view, they’re all emotional freaks of one sort or another. They’re guaranteed to invade your personal space, touch you. I sat next to a Republican senator once at dinner and he had his hand on my inner thigh the whole time. I was like, ehh, get me out of here.

HARWOOD: What?

BROOKS: I can only imagine what happens to you guys.

O’DONNELL: Sorry, who was that?

BROOKS: I’m not telling you, I’m not telling you. But so, a lot of them spend so much time needing people’s love and yet they are shooting upwards their whole life, they’re not that great in normal human relationships. And so, they’re like freaks, they don’t know how to, they’re lonely. They reach out. I’ve spoken to a lot of young women who are Senate staffers and they’ll have these middle age guys who are sort of in the middle of a mid-life crisis. Emotionally needy, they don’t know how to do it and sort of like these St. Bernards drooling everywhere. And you find a lot of this happens in mid-life and among very powerful people who are extremely lonely.

O’DONNELL: Can I ask one other question David? Do you think, what about female or women politicians? Are they dignified and are there examples of when they have not? Or does it tend to be the men who less dignified?

BROOKS: Yeah, I think that’s mostly a matter of genetics. I do think that…I do think there’s loneliness.

O’DONNELL: That was just a softball, David, and you really hit it very well.

BROOKS: Yeah, I wish I could think of sort of St. Bernards, sloppy women who are licking their aides, but but no, I can’t think of any.

HARWOOD: I’m not going there.

O’DONNELL: Did you have a couple drinks at lunch, David? I mean, this is clearly.

BROOKS: No, you’ve hit me…I’m trying not to be too dignified and stuffy.

O’DONNELL: Well, David Brooks as always, thank you very much. That was a lot of fun. You may not have gotten best column of the week, but you got best appearance of the week, certainly.

Digg!

Tagged as: david brooks, politicians, dignity

Matt Corley is a Research Associate for The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress.


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Can you believe it? Some truth erupts about Congress!
Posted by: luzmejor on Jul 11, 2009 6:14 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Here's an argument for term limits, definitely. And maybe David is just a slow learner, but isn't the whole point of politics to "get more" of everything?

People are sent to Congress because their backers are expecting to, (pardon the expression) get a leg up on their competition. They will attempt to exercise power in every way possible, and that includes bizarre,illegal and even crazy behavior before and behind the scenes.

It's nothing new, but now it seems to be filmed and recorded daily in living color.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: Can you believe it? Yes Posted by: Sister_Lauren
» The whole time? Posted by: progressive-life
Now let me get this straight...
Posted by: Blondinista on Jul 11, 2009 6:34 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Mr. Brooks sat through a whole dinner party with the guy's hand on his thigh, and never once tried to remove it?!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» And... Posted by: Blondinista
» RE: And... Posted by: Quannah
» RE: And... Posted by: lively56
The touching thing!
Posted by: moenbailey on Jul 11, 2009 7:26 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I'm a soon too be 50 year old building contractor. About 12 years ago my friends and I (all contractors or subs) were talking how the people we worked for had become so much more crazy that they used to be. It came out that people who would become completely unhinged clients all shared a similar trait. They all would reach out and touch us the first time we met them. It was the touching thing! We started turning down any work for "touching people" It was very effective in avoiding bad clients. To note. we were all small contractors that you would have to know someone to get us on your job, No problem contractors in the group. I thought this was a somewhat interesting similarity.

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» RE: The touching thing! Posted by: hedgewytch
Brooks is the usual weasel
Posted by: g on Jul 11, 2009 8:39 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
He supported Republicans for 8 years. Every time liberals were outraged at some Bush administration abuse (and there were plenty) he'd 'tut tut' at them for being strident and bad mannered. Now that the Republicans are out of power, he turns against them--and guess what, most of his comments are still pretty irrelevant (we are talking about unprecedented corruption and abuse from the Republicans, and he whines about a hand on his thigh? In what world does this guy live??). The guy is a liar, a coward and a prostitute (no offense to prostitutes, who are much more honest and socially useful than Brooks). I cannot believe that he's still on the NY Times editorial staff, writing his column next to people like Kristof and Cohen who have the guts to travel, talk to people and write uncomfortable things. At least transfer him to the gossip section. Can't Perez Hilton hire him?

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Any guesses as to the senator in question?
Posted by: arieden on Jul 11, 2009 8:46 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Could it have been Larry Craig?

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Deadline
Posted by: Ahimsa on Jul 11, 2009 9:36 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If you don't get your hand
off of there in two hours
I'll call the police!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» Exactly what I was thinking Posted by: PrinceRobert
Yeah, but did Brooks get his story?
Posted by: Jaffe on Jul 11, 2009 10:37 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Okay, the Republican Senator has questionable taste. Or maybe he's nearsighted and mistook Brook's inner thigh for a leg of lamb.

But then why didn't Brooks remove the offensive hand? He has clout--he writes (badly) for the NY Times, for God's sakes.

I guess the "molestation" was, to Brooks, worth whatever bullshit the nearsighted senator recounted for Brooks to cite in his column.

Right. And if you're going to go after the fools on faux-liberal MSNBC, why don't you go all the way and have the courage to name names?

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Is this Brooks'
Posted by: MrAllen on Jul 11, 2009 11:36 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"I'm not gay, despite what some may have heard." moment.

Now all he needs is a "I'm not really so spineless or cowed by politicians to have simply asked him to remove his hand." moment.

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» LOL right?? Posted by: CRaPWHiSPeReR
Don you think Brooks was offended...
Posted by: sausage on Jul 11, 2009 12:13 PM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
because the unnamed Republican Senator didn't ask him out for drinks after dinner?

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Brooks is not a human being, he is a Rethug waterboy
Posted by: Paul_C on Jul 11, 2009 12:58 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
so whatever he is saying has to be interpreted from that perspective - what is Rove's message for his media clowns today?

Rethugs are taking terrible hits on morality and the Rethugs have to be worried about their insane base.

Notice Brooks is not saying that all Rethugs are perverts, which of course they are. Rather, he is saying that all politicians are perverts.

So it goes with the territory and by implication the Dems must be just as guilty as the Rethugs of hypocrisy and perversion.

Brooks doesn't have the balls to label the Dems as such directly so he uses this cowardly sliming approach - guilt by association.

Guaranteed Rove gave him his marching orders and based upon how it goes we will hear it repeated over and over again on Faux "News" and elsewhere.

peace,
Paul

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And Brooks is saying that the politicians' behavior is bizarre?
Posted by: Longdream on Jul 11, 2009 1:01 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Give me a break.

So a grown man sits with another man's hand in close proximity to his dick (that's how I read 'inner thigh') for hours, and thinks that his position as a reporter covering the guy's milieu demands that he allow it. And then he later talks about it to make a point, in a pointless, mealy-mouthed fashion, while minimizing what it says, not about the state of politics today, but about how the subversive power-structure in the milieu impacts his personality.

After a half-hearted attempt at getting a name to make a scandal, his colleagues give up and allow him to equate this to the sexual harassment of the subordinate women in that milieu, excusing that quite different execrable behavior by saying that the powerful men are all 'sloppy St. Bernards who need love but can't get any'.

Where do his buddies go from there? Do they express disbelief that adults ostensibly able to make decisions that affect all of us citizens are engaging in behavior so bizarre that we should think about locking up our kids? No. They ask if there are any female St. Bernards out there who "lick their aides". Jesus wept.

I own a female St. Bernard. She's a lovely and dignified young lady, and I doubly resent this absolutely off-the-wall, free-form cluster-fuck of implications because they malign a good, honorable breed of dog.

And this was all purportedly said on the public airwaves, with millions of people listening. It's finally beginning to dawn on me that feminism really is dead on any kind of public level, and that my suspicion that all that's needed to be an on-screen news personality today is the ability to keep your weight down so as to look right on camera and speak English without an accent is absolutely right. The exceptions are too few to mention.

This is the intellectual caliber and judgment of the people who stand between us and the facts of our lives. It's maybe time to blow up our TV's.

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» How much you wanna bet this Brooks fellow Posted by: theblackgeorgecarlin
» RE: QUANNAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! Posted by: Longdream
» RE: QUANNAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! Posted by: Quannah
» RE: QUANNAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! Posted by: Longdream
» RE: QUANNAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! Posted by: Quannah
» RE: QUANNAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! Posted by: Longdream
» RE: QUANNAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! Posted by: Quannah
» RE: QUANNAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! Posted by: Longdream
MAYBE IT WAS A WADDED UP NAPKIN STUCK IN HIS LAP
Posted by: VZEQICVA on Jul 11, 2009 3:17 PM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I heard him tell the story and thought he was funny. He's right, these guys are all freaks of some kind. I've read his stuff for years but what I remember most is that he was the first one to actually state the Barack Obama would be our next president. Oh, I know lot's of people "thought it", but no one came out and made the statement. He did and It was very early on in the campaign. This story hasn't ended. A part of me thinks that David is yanking the media around and it never happened. We all need a laugh. ANNA

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This article is a waste of bandwidth
Posted by: theblackgeorgecarlin on Jul 11, 2009 3:44 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
So many politicians,mostly Republicans, are touchy-feely freaks that are unhealthily extroverted and emotionally unbalanced. That's not surprising at all. Many people that are aware of the political process already knows that politics attracts a certain type of mind, type of personality, one that constantly needs to feel better and superior to everyone else. Sociopaths,narcissist,egotist,megolomaniacs etc. are in ample supply in the political arena,as well as the bussiness-corporate world, and any place were competition is present. Look at Sarah Palin,Donald Rumsfeld,Dick Cheney,both George Bushs,Karl Rove,Ralph Nader,Bill Clinton, and can you honestly tell me anyone of these people are normal?

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Brook Never moved the senators hand
Posted by: doctor on Jul 12, 2009 7:46 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Obviously Brook was enjoying the thigh rub as was the senator otherwise she would have moved his hand. I know I would have taken his hand off my thigh, and I would have made a big deal about it at the dinner table.
She did not move his hand because she was prostituting herself like anyone who wants something badly might have.

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» She? Posted by: zipper696
Want to become a journalist?
Posted by: PaulK on Jul 12, 2009 11:24 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
First, I'm only slightly surprised at David Brooks's description of what he'd do for a story. I've seen sex-for-stories parodied in the movie, "Mind if I Smoke?"

Second, I'm only slightly surprised at David Brooks going public just so he can get a second story and maybe one talk show circuit. The press can say anything they want as long as they spell his name right...

Brooks does raise an interesting perspective of United States Senators as lonely, shy guys who just want to be understood, over a few drinks, every night if possible.

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I take it Dave didn't put out, then?
Posted by: hurricane hugo on Jul 12, 2009 5:10 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
cocktease!

#@!

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He was Not drunk
Posted by: lalala on Jul 13, 2009 3:44 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This was so great. I love this guy!

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Humorous companion article: Pink Elephants on Parade
Posted by: CRaPWHiSPeReR on Jul 13, 2009 3:46 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
>>Q: How many Republican politicians can you fit in the closet?
A: Evidently, all of them.

It’s gone past ridiculous and straight to the absurd. At this point, it appears your average public restroom has more gay Republicans in it than clean handtowels. The “holier-than-thou” party has spent an awful lot of time on their knees this past year, but they haven’t been doing a lot of praying.

I have no theories why this is the case, other than I think that being gay is the way God made some people and being conservative is a choice, and almost every Republican I’ve met thinks the opposite.

But why question it? The larger point is that if you enjoy seeing politicians destroyed by their own hypocrisy, it’s been a very, very good year. So I give you the top five republican gay sex scandals of the past 12 months.

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» why won't the URL post? Posted by: CRaPWHiSPeReR
Wishful Thinking
Posted by: jmmartin on Jul 13, 2009 5:26 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I think David meant to say, "I sat next to a Republican senator at a dinner one night and I kept wishing he would put his hand on my inner thigh." Brooks is a closet queer.

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» RE: Wishful Thinking Posted by: Longdream
our miss brooks inner thigh is NOT what I needed today
Posted by: isafakir on Jul 13, 2009 6:22 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
our miss brooks inner thigh is NOT what I needed today. i do not need to be thinking of our miss brooks inner thigh any day but methinks the self promotion in this bit of salacious personal revelation is just over the top.

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Stop it; I love it!
Posted by: willymack on Jul 13, 2009 11:14 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I don't know about Brooks, but I wouldn't like another man's hand on my thigh. A woman's hand is quite another story.
I can just imagine myself in his situation.
In my calm, urbane, and sophisticated manner, I probably would've said something polite like "Get your goddam hand off me, asshole"!
Did the senator get a rise out of Brooks, or what, not that there's anything wrong with that, or that it's anybody else's business. Was Brooks bragging or complaining?

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Old news brooks
Posted by: xmvince on Jul 13, 2009 1:51 PM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
“Force (powerful positions) always attract men of low morality.” -Albert Einstein

Well, we already knew this Brooks - people who want the hotseat in politics usually aren't the best people for the job. It's the people who don't want the power that you can trust the most. Sucks how it works out like that though.

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HoHo ,must be very decent,and he may get a desent pay.
Posted by: itouch backup on Jul 15, 2009 8:42 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
» FUKKIN' SPAMMER!!! Posted by: CAPSLOCK_AVENGER