New York Times Columnist Applauds Obama’s ‘Amazingly Scandal-Free’ Administration

Recent comments made by New York Times conservative-leaning columnist David Brooks are likely to come as a shock to many on the right.

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Appearing on "PBS Newshour" Friday, Brooks applauded President Barack Obama and his staff for running an "amazingly scandal-free" administration — despite plenty of Republican criticism of how the administration has handled a number of incidents, including the botched gun operation known as Fast and Furious, the response to the Benghazi attacks, the admitted IRS targeting of conservative groups, NSA surveillance and the inadequate health care treatment of veterans at VA hospitals.

"And I have my disagreements, say, with President Obama, but President Obama has run an amazingly scandal-free administration, not only he himself, but the people around him," Brooks said. "He’s chosen people who have been pretty scandal-free."

The comment sparked a flurry of online debate from conservative pundits and organizations.

"Despite 6 1/2 years of horrid governance and dozens of acknowledged scandals, several of which a few of the credible remaining outposts of liberal thought have actually agreed are scandals, David Brooks, the New York Times's resident fake conservative, asserted on Friday's PBS NewsHour, as if it's an indisputable fact," wrote Tom Blumer of the conservative Newsbusters.org.

House Republican communications director Alyssa Farah took to Twitter to list some out.

With all due respect to David Brooks, did he somehow miss IRS targeting, Solyndra, the VA, Benghazi, Fast & Furious? https://t.co/yY4MrDcWvP

— Alyssa Farah (@Alyssafarah) June 1, 2015

Tammy Bruce, a self-described independent conservative author and columnist, also chimed in.

Faux ‘Conservative’ David Brooks: ‘Obama Has Run An Amazingly Scandal-Free Administration’ https://t.co/xBTFlSIGOQ via @NYJooo

— Tammy Bruce (@HeyTammyBruce) June 1, 2015

Here's the transcript of Brooks' remarks:

We have seen a disturbing undercurrent in American life, I guess, and maybe in world life, of this sort of thing. I am struck, as Mark just mentioned, the whole litany of people, especially of that era, who were involved in some scandal or another. Some of it was sexual. Some of it was more financial, even Tom DeLay’s, Speaker Wright. And it was just all concentrated in a lot of people all at once.

Does politics attract such people? I don’t know. Is it prevalent in society? It’s certainly a reminder of original sin. The other thing, though, I did want to say that there are people in American life to whom this has not happened.

And I have my disagreements, say, with President Obama, but President Obama has run an amazingly scandal-free administration, not only he himself, but the people around him. He’s chosen people who have been pretty scandal-free.

And so there are people in Washington who do set a standard of integrity, who do seem to attract people of quality. And I think that’s probably true of the current group. I hope it’s true of the current leadership group in Congress. But — so they’re not all involved in scandal.

(H/T: Real Clear Politics)

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