Posted 2:59 PM by Scoobie Davis

David Brock's Redemption
In case you missed Frank Rich’s New York Times Magazine article on disaffected cog in the right-wing smear machine David Brock, click here. Brock, whose forthcoming book, Blinded by the Right, an expose of the right’s smear tactics against former President Clinton and Anita Hill, is due out in March. Expect some bombshells to emerge from this book. One of the more amusing aspects of Rich’s article about a very sad topic (though less sad than attempts by the current right-wing smear machine to discredit Brock) is the utter pretentiousness of the American right. Brock wrote of his attempts ''to look like an old fogy in training, donning a bow tie and horn-rimmed glasses and, ludicrously, puffing on a pipe and occasionally even carrying a walking stick.'' Throughout the years, I have noticed the hilariously affected manner of much of the American right. Pundit Tucker Carlson, who is from San Diego, wears a bow tie. Nobody from San Diego wears a bow tie—especially someone under the age of fifty. I agree with Dress For Success author John Malloy that “the average person who wears a bow tie is distrusted by almost anyone.” Brock’s comments remind me of the observations of another disaffected member of the American right, Michael Lind, who in his book Up From Conservatism, noted the cult-like adoration of young members of the right for Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited.