I Think that It's A Joke

Atrios calls Mark Shields his Wanker of the Day for the following (video after break):

SHIELDS: We have a president of real intellectual horse power who is cool, detached and analytical and if anything you can watch the emotional side of him emerge in this whole process.

I mean...We saw it at Arlington, we saw it at Fort Hood, we saw it at Dover Air Force Base

There’s an emotional aspect, the comforter in chief as well as the commander in chief. Both roles. And I think it makes me nostalgic for those days when we had a manly man in the White House who could say, “Let’s kick some tail and ask questions afterwards” you know? That’s what we really need instead of any reflection.

(emphasis mine)

If I thought that Shields were seruious, I'd be dismissing him as a wanker too, but I think that the, "Manly man in the White House," is the tell here. It's a joke, and the the target here, I think is actually David Broder, who that morning wrote the following on Afghanistan (no direct link to the Kaplan Test Prep Company), "The urgent necessity is to make a decision -- whether or not it is right."

Mark Shields was calling David Broder out, in the smarmy, inside-the-Beltway subtle way....You see, if he had said it with a jacking off motion with his hand, it would have been clear, but instead, he just used an arch voice.

Video follows: