On Meet The Press today, David Gregory and panel looked at Governor Rick Perry‘s strong lead in Republican party polls, and discussed the impact of his campaign on the future of the GOP.

Chris Matthews continued to be amazed by Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and her transformation into a serious candidate who is speaking directly to many Americans. Many on Matthews’ panel agreed that Bachmann’s simple and direct message has appeal, but some doubted how far she might actually be able to go with it.

Conservative columnist for The New York Times David Brooks takes on presumably his own party in a hyperventilating tirade blaming the Republican party for playing politics with the budget crisis. Maybe Brooks is legitimately worried that if America comes close to possibly defaulting on its debt, the consequences would be so grave that Republicans shouldn’t even use it as leverage in their negotiations. Yet if that’s the case, why aren’t Democrats and particularly President Obama, even more deserving of his scorn for allowing such a critical issue to remain unresolved right up until the deadline?

Conservative columnist David Brooks discussed the election results in New York state’s 26th Congressional District with liberal columnist Mark Shields, and Brooks admitted that the disappointing result from the special election suggests public opinion says “do nothing” to fix the drivers of the nation’s debt crisis. Brooks also revealed his thoughts on Sarah Palin‘s bus tour.

America owes Donald Trump a bit of gratitude for his campaign daliance-cum-Celebrity Apprentice publicity tour, and its not for eliciting President Obama’s long form birth certificate, from which he claimed credit. No, we all owe Trump some level of thanks for revealing the core competence of political pundits that actually believed his dopey and transparent promotional scheme.

Bill Maher was startled by the results of some polls on Republicans’ beliefs he read recently, and devoted a segment on tonight’s Real Time to analyzing them. And while any segment where Maher discusses Republicans is in danger of turning into a bash-fest filled with accusations of racism, this one stayed calmer…and produced a pretty good segment of television.

On Friday, Parker/Spitzer co-host Kathleen Parker announced that she is leaving the show. In a guest column, John Ziegler, radio host, Palin confidante, and the filmmaker behind Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted, offers his commentary on Parker’s departure from CNN.

At the top of the Oscar list are two movies – True Grit and The Social Network – that have attracted and delighted audience that are now vying for supremacy in the eyes of the Academy Awards voters. Last week, Grit pulled ahead in box office totals, but Social Network has been the favorite thus far among major critics’ awards. Because of the late momentum Grit has generated at the box office, Social Network will be re-released in theaters.

So much for the “new niceness.” From today until Wednesday, Salon’s War Room blog will be revealing its list of the 30 “worst” pundits currently stinking up the media. The inventory is being written by Alex Pareene, who learned the art of biting commentary at Gawker.

Even before he joined the White House as President Obama‘s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel had quite a reputation. Stories about his ferocity are numerous; there’s even a website called rahmfacts.com that collects them. New York Times columnist David Brooks, though, has a different take on Emanuel.

Last week Chris Lehmann, Bookforum editor and Managing Editor of Yahoo’s News Blog, announced the launch of his new book, Rich People Things. The book was born out of his long-running column of the same name for The Awl. Nisha Chittal speaks to Lehmann about the book, the column, and the events that led him to write about so-called “Rich People Things”

A short, interesting exchange on Meet the Press today that I think goes a long way in explaining how the administration found itself playing a starring role in the Shirley Sherrod fiasco this week. Listen to how former White House communications director Anita Dunn, former White House communications director explain how the administration got into this mess.

To say that Michael Hastings‘ Rolling Stone article, “The Runaway General,” caused quite a stir would be an understatement. The piece obviously shed light on General Stanley McChrystal, but it has also put Hastings in the spotlight. Yesterday, the New York Times‘ David Brooks wrote a column attacking Hastings for giving in to the “culture of exposure” by making “the kvetching the center of his magazine profile.”

On Meet the Press yesterday the New York Times‘ David Brooks weighed in on the topic on everyone’s mind this weekend: Arizona’s new immigration law. Brooks concern was less about the civil right abuses the law may leave a (very big) open window for, than how this new law will allow the Democrats to push at lot of other important stuff to the side and focus on purely political goals.

“At the Atlantic, I start with Andrew Sullivan and I inevitably cycle through almost all of them. I used to agree with Andrew quite a lot but he went on this transition from right to left. I liked him better on the right and especially during the middle of his transition. Now I find I know what he’s going to say.” David Brooks makes a good point.

New York Times columnist David Brooks is kicking Sandra Bullock when she’s down. In his op-ed today, he asks whether winning an Oscar but losing a husband was a worthy trade. Surprise: Brooks argues Bullock, and most Americans, make the wrong choice. And yes, by creating a false rivalry between career and social life, he implies that Bullock consciously made that decision. But even if she did, isn’t it a great trade-off?

New York Times columnist David Brooks was a guest last night on The Colbert Report and seemed to relish in being back in the “conservative” media after regularly appearing in more “liberal” outlets.

Brooks weighed in on Pres. Obama, health care and tea parties, coining a new term for the movement.

David Brooks, in Tuesday’s New York Times op-ed “The Geezers’ Crusade,” writes about the political implications of aging in our world. Youth, he says, is overrated in making change. Instead, it’s the old people — taking money, freedom and opportunity more than ever before — who need to catalyze progression: “Only the old can lead a generativity revolution.”

Yesterday, Matt Taibbi took the sort of scorching rhetoric he usually levels at Tom Friedman and directed it elsewhere on the NYT op-ed page. Namely, David Brooks. Taibbi provided his own ‘translation’ of Brooks’ recent column on Haiti. Translation: It’s ain’t pretty.

Apparently, the Tea Partiers do not read NPR.org. An animated cartoon titled “Learn to Speak Tea Bag” has been running on the site for nearly two months with little fanfare. Until now. Some folks, not surprisingly, are not thrilled by the use of the term “Tea Bag.” Welcome to the new political decade NPR!

Five days into the new decade and David Brooks, in what sounds like an alternate preamble to Beyond the Thunderdome, is predicting that it will be known as the Tea Party Teens. Why? Tea Partiers are the natural successors to hippies and feminists, of course.

In his Friday column, the New York Times‘ David Brooks wrote about the immaturity of the American psyche, especially with regards to terrorism and national security. Brooks mourned the vanishing of a collective “mature attitude,” noting that “this is apparently a country that must be spoken to in childish ways. Don’t worry, little Johnny.”

On Friday, David Brooks used his New York Times column to announce the first round of his Sidney Awards for the year’s best magazine essays. It was a varied and inspired list — except out of the six essays chosen, none were written by women. Today, in his second set of winners, that wrong was righted. But, two out of 14?

What can we learn about New York Times columnist David Brooks through his favorite essays of the year, published annually as The Sidney Awards? Well, he loves The New Yorker, paid special attention to the health care debate and, uh… doesn’t read the work of too many women. Fortunately, another batch is coming Tuesday.

Everyone seems to be talking about Glenn Beck these days (including us), but how powerful is he really?

The power of Beck, Rush Limbaugh and others radio hosts was debated today on Meet the Press, in a conversation that also involved some shots at cable news as a whole.