The Times columnist is catching flack this week for saying one thing about Sarah Palin while speaking to media elite swells (her VP candidacy is joke), and another in his Times column (she is the rising star of the GOP).

But critics have it all wrong, claims Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg. Brooks isn't being dishonest or a hypocrite, by toasting her debate performance last Friday in the Times and then on Monday calling her a “cancer” on the Republican Party.

Brooks wasn't being duplicitous, says media elite Goldberg, he was just being honest; he just “wrestles” with tough issues in public. And you know what, we ought to toast him for it.

For the record, both Goldberg and Brooks were loud cheerleaders for the war in Iraq and now say well, it wasn't the best idea. Are we supposed to thank them for wrestling with that issue as well?