Conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks assailed the Tea
Party and the extreme nature of today's Republican Party Tuesday on
ComedyCentral's The Colbert Report.

"The Tea Party is where the money is at, baby," said Stephen Colbert.
"Why aren't you saying crazy stuff your in columns and if you pardon
the expression, put some asses in the seats?"

"Well, the Tea Parties they're like the hippies," Brooks responded.
"The hippies wanted to stick it to the man and they were
anti-establishment. So the Tea Parties are like the Wal-Mart hippies."

Colbert jested that Brooks should be less moderate and shun news
organizations that aren't sufficiently conservative.

"You go on PBS," noted Colbert. "That's the enemy camp. You cannot be
friends with these people. Okay?"

"There's a conservative news channel and there's a liberal news
channel," Colbert continued. "There's a conservative paper and a
liberal paper. There's a conservative puffed corn chip and a liberal
puffed corn chip. How can you possibly be in the enemy camp?"

"Self loathing," said Brooks. "I've made it a career of self loathing.
My joke is that being a conservative at the New York Times is like
being chief rabbi at Mecca."

"I actually think the world is complicated and I'm not for moderation
for its own sake," he continued. "There's actually like a tradition in
American life that started with Alexander Hamilton," explained Brooks.
"But it's about the idea that you use government a little, not a lot,
to increase social mobility. So, that's what I actually believe in.
I'm part of a dead tradition."

Colbert responded, "Ronald Reagan is rolling over in his grave."
Brooks laughed and said Reagan was much more moderate than today's Tea
Parties and the modern Republican Party.