The latest edition of PBS NewsHour's regular "Shields and Brooks" segment -- which pits liberal Mark Shields up against pretend conservative David Brooks allegedly to provide balance -- not only featured both analysts slamming GOP presidential candidate and Texas Senator Ted Cruz from the left over terrorism, but the liberal Shields actually admonished President Barack Obama for his reaction to the Brussels terrorist attacks while faux-conservative Brooks wholeheartedly defended Obama's behavior in Cuba.
In Friday's discussion of the political aftermath of the Brussels terrorist attacks and Cruz's recommendation of more police engagement with Muslim communities, Brooks griped that he had forgotten "how ugly Ted Cruz could be" because of Donald Trump's recent behavior, and Shields declared that the Texas Senator's idea was "beyond stupid."
Host Judy Woodruff posed: "It was striking, some of the reaction among the Republican candidates for President. David, you had Ted Cruz saying what we need to do is send more security into patrolling basically neighborhoods where Muslim-Americans live."
Without recalling that Senator Cruz has cited a discontinued program by liberal former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg as an example of what he would like to do, Brooks immediately tore into him: "Yeah, I spent the last week so repulsed by Donald Trump, I'd forgotten how ugly Ted Cruz could be, but he reminded us this week."
As if Osama bin Laden's promise of "72 virgins" in paradise for those who wage jihad never happened, the allegedly right-leaning Brooks then dismissed the role of religious doctrine in inspiring Islamic terrorism in a way that would make a liberal proud as he continued:
You know, as I said, and as everyone says, the reason we have terrorism is not because the prophet Mohammed came down and not because there's a religion called Islam. The reason we have terror is that young men are alienated and feel that they can wage war and a just war against societies that are racist and xenophobic and crushing toward them.
The New York Times columnist took aim at Cruz again as he added:
And if you want to spread that message, a good way would be to have extra police operations directed at Muslim neighborhoods. And so Ted Cruz's idea is probably the worst idea -- well, only of the day because we have a lot in this campaign -- a truly terrible idea only saved by the fact it's almost certain he doesn't actually believe it. He just wants to sound like Donald Trump.
It was then Shields's turn to pile on:
I think David put his finger on it. I would say this, it's ironic, Judy, as the Republican party, to avoid Donald Trump, is rallying reluctantly against their own will around Ted Cruz, he reminded them and everybody else why they didn't like him in the first place. I mean, this is an awful, awful position. When the Anti-Defamation League comes out and compares it to the imprisonment and incarceration of Japanese-Americans through World War II.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton of New York says he has no idea at all what he's talking about. A thousand Muslim-Americans, many of them combat veterans on the New York police force. I mean, it's just, it's beyond, it's beyond stupid.
A bit earlier in the segment, the liberal Shields actually seemed to hit his fellow panel member a bit from the right after Brooks gave President Obama a complete pass on how he reacted to the Brussels terrorist attacks. After Woodruff brought up complaints by Republicans that Obama did not interrupt his trip to Cuba, Brooks began:
Yeah, I think those criticisms were unfounded. We have a big government. We can do a lot of things at once. If the President skipped the baseball game and gone home, what more could he have done? I mean, he has a telephone. He can make decisions; he can have meetings. It's just my basic principle that that's political point scoring.
He then concluded by quipping: "It's my most fundamental basic principle there's never a good reason to miss a baseball game, and so his decision to do that, I fully support that."
As Woodruff was about to move on, Shields surprisingly jumped in to declare, "I disagree."
The liberal columnist then chided President Obama as he added:
I think optics do matter. I think the President could -- the baseball game was probably the most important event, you know, emotionally and nationally, during his trip to Cuba. I don't think he had to be there for the wave, when the crowd stands up for that. I don't think it's necessary for him to wear sunglasses. He could have gone to the game and the rest. Optics, a terrible word, do matter, and if you have any doubts about that, virtually every paper in the country, certainly the Wall Street Journal among them, featured the master as servant this week.
He continued:
On Holy Thursday, there was Pope Francis kissing and washing the feet of a refugee -- a penniless refugee. That is -- that's a visual. I agree with David the President can do anything anywhere he is, but if you were sitting in Brussels worried about your family or your relatives or your neighborhood, the picture of kind of grinning at the game, I think, was probably not helpful.
