via Ann Althouse comes the story of NYTimes “cultural observer” David Brooks titillating MSNBC hosts and audience alike with his story of being groped at dinner
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.
Really? The whole dinner? From the Tuna Carpaccio to the Profiteroles au Chocolate and hot coffee, little Miss Brooks just sat there and let himself be fondled with nary the withering stare or pointed remark against the offender … let alone the well-placed fork tines onto the back of the offending hand …
Brooksie, sweetheart, if you’re going to tell tales out of school, you should consult the sisterhood on the way to handle such boors before crying in your hankie on the Obama Network!
Unless of course, you were enjoying it at the time and now are just a little regretful at the indignity of it all.
(h/t Joe)
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UPDATE: more
(Is anyone genuinely startled that Brooks would have submitted to sexual abuse on the part of an abuser in a position of power…? I sure ain’t. I’d have hit the guy, and if it had been her, my wife would have hit the guy, and neither of us would have done squat to protect a sexual predator: which is part of why, I suppose, we’re just bloggers, not Elite Opinion Journalists. Dude, David, if you’re telling the truth, you’re protecting a monster — speak up, asshole. Because sure as hell there is someone else who needs to be spoken for, and who has a hell of a lot more to lose than you do by going public. I mean, the more I think about this — ha ha, a Senator gropes you in a public place, but no names, they’re all like that — I mean, Christ, this gets less funny and far more revolting.)
Comment by serr8d on 7/11 @ 10:43 am #
David Brooks, attracting a Republican Senator who is also male? Who’da thunk it?
Comment by meya on 7/11 @ 10:47 am #
Brooks needs to know when he’s the beta to the alpha dog. I guess that works in prison as well as for the washington establishment
Comment by Cranky-d & Associates on 7/11 @ 10:48 am #
Wow. What a fucking pussy.
Comment by nikkolai on 7/11 @ 10:50 am #
We all knew Brooks was teh effeminate, but this gay is surprising.
Comment by Darleen on 7/11 @ 10:54 am #
the irony is the stereotype of the ’50’s woman was as some put-upon (by the Patriarchy!!1!) shrinking violet
but those women knew exactly how to handle unwelcome advances
while “feminists” have stripped girls of all manner of ways to say “no” and mean it.
Comment by meya on 7/11 @ 10:58 am #
“while “feminists” have stripped girls of all manner of ways to say “no” and mean it.”
So does no still mean yes? Or have they ruined that too?
Comment by Darleen on 7/11 @ 11:01 am #
please meya stop playing into Vagina Warrior myth, either through ignorance or malice. Just stop.
Comment by Bob Reed on 7/11 @ 11:09 am #
B-B-But, I thought David Brooks didn’t date RethugliKKKanz???
You know, like on the commercials that ran during MTV’s
elect ObamaRock the Vote! pablum…Or is it because they can’t hold impromptu discussions on Niebuhr..?
Boy, is Obama gonna be pissed once he finds out his bee-yotch Brooks has been cheating on him!
Comment by Robohobo on 7/11 @ 11:15 am #
His mistook the tingle running down his leg for someone’s hand, me thinks.
Comment by Sam Hall on 7/11 @ 11:25 am #
Don’t buy it.
Comment by David Brooks on 7/11 @ 11:25 am #
I can’t believe it happened to me. I attended a party hosted by a Republican Senator last weekend. As a journalist, my work introduces me to interesting characters occasionally and I met this Senator for an article I was writing. He appreciated my interviewing style apparently, because he invited me to his place for a party.
I brought a bottle of moderately priced Champagne (well, sparkling white zinfandel anyway), thinking that would be what a Senator and his friends would enjoy. To my surprise, I was greeted at the door by the Senator and a number of his equally sexy colleges drinking Jim Bean from the bottle. They took the bottle of White Zin from me and I never saw it again. As they led me to the hot tub, bourbon struck me as an odd choice of beverages for a group of nearly naked Senators, I would have expected them drinking old fashions or perhaps highballs. That wasn’t the only thing that stuck me as odd as the night continued. They stripped me of my clothes, leaving only my modest underwear on.
As I got in to the hot tub alone, a cute Senator forced me to guzzle foul bourbon (Wild Turkey is the only decent choice of Kentucky’s finest). He then asked me about oysters and clams and asked if I had a preference. I told him I could go either way. The other Senators began to circle the hot tub. I expected them to undress. Instead, they began donning full-body Disney mascot costumes. Mickey, Goofy, Donald, Pluto, one of the dwarves. They were all there. I searched for the booze again but the Senator was replaced by a furry visage of Buzz Lightyear. Naturally, I felt awkward at that point.
To make a long story short, the tub eventually went inside, played Scrabble and I went home alone.
Comment by David Brooks on 7/11 @ 11:26 am #
There are many sick twisted individuals in the Republican Party and in the Senate.
Comment by Darleen on 7/11 @ 11:30 am #
Sam Hall
Made up or real the only “ehhh” in this story is Little Miss Brooks.
Comment by Timstigator on 7/11 @ 11:31 am #
That picture says to me “sex change I can believe in.”
Comment by Silver Whistle on 7/11 @ 11:36 am #
Isn’t there a chapter in “White Gloves & Party Manners” that would have helped Miss Brooks in her dilemma?
Comment by Joe on 7/11 @ 11:50 am #
Either the story is true and David Brooks has some matters he might have to work out with himself and his wife or he is just making this crap up as he goes.
I do not doubt many (not all) politicians are crazy egoists and socially retarded. But I mean, come on, that is true for Democrats and Republicans. If you look at major sex scandals, they are pretty evenly divided between the parties (although reporting on them is definitely not evenly done). Even Henry Waxman said the other day that he and his wife liked Republicans more than Democrats (when he was in the California legislature) socially because Democrats were just so out of control when they went up to Sacramento.
So David if you are going to throw crap out there about GOP Senators, say who it is or shut up. Sounds like you are more upset that you did not get more than a thigh rub.
Comment by Joe on 7/11 @ 12:07 pm #
David Brooks tells us why dignity is lacking:
Capitalism? We can’t have that can we! I guess that explain’s Brooks support for Barack Obama. Obama will bring dignity back.
Naturalism? You mean like this guy, or this guy, or this guy?
Evangelicalism? Anti-egalitarianism? So why did dignity just disappear now? Wasn’t Reagan dignified? Evangelicalism and anti-egalitarianism have been around since the beginning of this Country and certainly since Andrew Jackson’s time.
And was David Brooks being dignified with his confession of thigh touching? What’s David’s excuse?
Comment by Joe on 7/11 @ 12:22 pm #
There is a lot of corruption, but David is wrong on the source.
David Brooks’ problems are reflective of the entire journalism industry.
Comment by ushie on 7/11 @ 1:06 pm #
Christ, sounds like the dinner parttes that Our Miss Brooks attends are straight out of “Chained Heat.” Was Sylvia Danning the impertinent dinner partner, or John Vernon, high as a kite on blow?
Comment by Wm T Sherman on 7/11 @ 1:29 pm #
He made it up. He’s delusional enough be unaware that the story makes him look like a pathetic little creep. That means he’s delusional enough to make it up.
Comment by psycho... on 7/11 @ 1:34 pm #
Fill in whatever one you most dislike. Between us all, we’ll get all of them. That’s the point.
Half the commentary on this — the half that’s not about how unfuckable Brooks is* — is unfocused haters of any personification of “Republican” bonding through the exchange of whodunnit lists.
*It is hard to believe that there’s a nerd-rubber so blindly predatory that he’d touch Brooks. But that’s so given, our saying it again can’t hurt him.
Comment by DoDoGuRu on 7/11 @ 2:22 pm #
I was like “eewe get me out of here” when that guy put his hand on my thigh for an hour an a half. When he grabbed my junk and open mouth kissed me for like thirty minutes in the powder room I was like “this is the worst party ever”.
Comment by ushie on 7/11 @ 4:33 pm #
You know what’s cute? Meya. I mean, it’s like she says to herself, “Hey, I haven’t been stupid today. I’d better go post a comment on PW,” and she does, and I go, “Awww!” because it’s so cute how she just has to do that.
Comment by George Orwell on 7/11 @ 11:54 pm #
Hey, Dave… You sat the whole time with a senator’s hand on your thigh, and you didn’t get up and leave? A male senator, yes? All you could do was write about it long afterwards and wring your hands in trangressive nostalgia?
It’s simple, Dave, and fabulous! You’re a fag. Not gay, because gay is cool.
You’re a fag. Amyl nitrate, baby… Feel the glory, whole!
Comment by mj on 7/12 @ 6:29 am #
The guy next to him ate the whole dinner one-handed? Not too likely, really. If he were too afraid to say anything, walking away, or deliberately spilling something into the guy’s lap would have done the job.
Comment by Joe on 7/12 @ 6:36 am #
mj, David Brooks fed the guy with his hand on David’s inner thigh. Either with his fork, or by masticating an especially tasty morsel and then french kissing it into the Senator’s mouth.
I am glad there was no video.
Comment by Before Gore Kneel on 7/12 @ 1:52 pm #
Brooks can’t name him because his first name is Arlen.
Comment by MarkD on 7/13 @ 9:23 am #
Is he certain he wasn’t sitting next to Chris Matthews? Those tingly legs might be contagious. I say quarantine all Senators, for the good of the nation.
Pingback by Ted Kennedy Corpse Watch II: Miss Brooks admonishes ruffian conservatives on 8/28 @ 10:35 pm #
[...] we last heard from our Miss David Brooks, he was all atwitter about emotional freaks in the Senate, what with their invasion of personal space and Republicans fondling his inner thigh [...]