Republican pundit David Brooks’ article in today’s New York Times discusses the latest events in Iran, as turmoil from their recent fraudulent election has spilled into the streets of Tehran. In his comments, Brooks observes that “on the big issue, the administration has it exactly right.”
This agreement — which is far from the position voiced by most Republicans — gives added support to Peter Meinke’s “Dear David” letter in this week’s Poet’s Notebook. Meinke’s basic claim is that long-time, and famous, Republican Brooks is slowly morphing into a Democrat, and it’s time that he made the actual leap — not in a self-serving Senator Arlen Specter sort of way, but because Brooks’ views coincide more and more with Barack Obama’s.

Frank Gorshin in a 1969 "Star Trek" episode referenced by Dave Itzkoff.

In more proof that the blockbuster Star Trek movie has tapped into the zeitgeist, or at least the hype-geist, the Week in Review section in today’s New York Times includes three count ‘em three Trek-inspired stories. Surprisingly, only two out of three use the now-obligatory Obama-as-Spock trope.

• Columbia J-School prof and pop historian David Hajdu on Star Trek as “an early manifestation of our contemporary absorption with the pop culture of the past.”

• Dave Itzkoff’s “Ideas & Trends” piece on the socio/political climate of 1966 (when the TV series debuted) vs. that of 2009

• Maureen Dowd’s dream that Spock/Obama swoosh in and use the powers of logic to save newspapers. (I especially liked the  ‘red matter’/'read matter’ pun, though it may work better if you’ve seen the movie.)

Dowd’s piece neatly combines Trek-speak with journalists’ other favorite topic these days, the death of journalism. That theme gets its due elsewhere in the Sunday Times with Frank Rich’s “The American Press on Suicide Watch” and Clark Hoyt’s ombudsman column, The Public Editor, which faults the Times for missing the dying-newspaper story on its corporate doorstep: the labor dispute that threatens the extinction of the Times-owned Boston Globe. Guess the death-of-journalism coverage gets a little trickier when your own newspaper is dismembering another.

Walsh and Armey were in a heated debate about the relevance of Rush Limbaugh in the GOP.

“I am so damn glad that you could never be my wife, ’cause I surely wouldn’t have to listen to that prattle from you every day,” Armey said.

“Well, that makes two of us,” Walsh shot back.

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, waiting off camera for an appearance, later said on-air: “Dick Armey was so far out of line in the last segment with his sexist comments, and he owes Joan Walsh and your viewers an apology.”

Matthews later apologized on behalf of the former House Majority Leader, and said the comments were “overboard.”

Video below:

• Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapses while on stage in D.C.
• The stock market collapses in late-day trading in New York.
• How you feel about telecom immunity now, Barack?
• Hillary announcement after Thanksgiving?
• I hope you already sold your Citibank stock.
• Hal Steinbrenner takes control.
• Surprised by the NFL season? You’re not the only one.
• The New York Times doesn’t like Chinese Democracy as much as Rolling Stone does.
• … but its release will get you a free Dr. Pepper!
• Fred Thompson is going back to a job with unlimited power, willing young girls, and all the money you want. (No, he’s not going back to the US Senate)
• “Taxes are anathema.”
• The answer to this question is: No.
• I’m surprised to not find Irwin Mainway’s “Bag o’ glass” on this list.
• RIP Ybor City the nightclub district.
• The time has come to forge a real “liberal media.”

• Your polling location: For Hillsborough residents, for Pinellas residents.
• Got voting questions? Here’s the answers.
• Bring on the sports metaphors: The candidates turn up on Monday Night Football.
• If McCain’s going to win, this is how.
• If Obama loses, “It would mark the biggest collective error in the history of the media and political establishment.”
• It’s election day: Free coffee and donuts for everyone!
• Instant nostalgia: The New York Times remembers Election ‘08.
• R.I.P. Obama’s Grandmother. Madelyn Dunham.

Timed to accompany today’s editorial endorsement of Democrat Barack Obama for president, the New York Times has a way-cool multimedia page with all of its presidential endorsements since that 1860 election, a must-graze for political junkies, historians and presidential geeks of all stripes.

In 1860, amid fears that Lincoln’s election would rip the nation apart, the Times wrote:

Things will go on very much as they have hitherto — except that we shall have honesty and manliness instead of meanness and corruption in the Executive departments, and a decent regard for the opinions of mankind in the tone and talk of the Government on the subject of Slavery.

Excerpts from its Obama endorsement after the jump.

The Times today wrote:

The United States is battered and drifting after eight years of President Bush’s failed leadership. He is saddling his successor with two wars, a scarred global image and a government systematically stripped of its ability to protect and help its citizens — whether they are fleeing a hurricane’s floodwaters, searching for affordable health care or struggling to hold on to their homes, jobs, savings and pensions in the midst of a financial crisis that was foretold and preventable.

As tough as the times are, the selection of a new president is easy. After nearly two years of a grueling and ugly campaign, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has proved that he is the right choice to be the 44th president of the United States.

And:

It will be an enormous challenge just to get the nation back to where it was before Mr. Bush, to begin to mend its image in the world and to restore its self-confidence and its self-respect. Doing all of that, and leading America forward, will require strength of will, character and intellect, sober judgment and a cool, steady hand.

Mr. Obama has those qualities in abundance. Watching him being tested in the campaign has long since erased the reservations that led us to endorse Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primaries. He has drawn in legions of new voters with powerful messages of hope and possibility and calls for shared sacrifice and social responsibility.

Mr. McCain, whom we chose as the best Republican nominee in the primaries, has spent the last coins of his reputation for principle and sound judgment to placate the limitless demands and narrow vision of the far-right wing. His righteous fury at being driven out of the 2000 primaries on a racist tide aimed at his adopted daughter has been replaced by a zealous embrace of those same win-at-all-costs tactics and tacticians.

He surrendered his standing as an independent thinker in his rush to embrace Mr. Bush’s misbegotten tax policies and to abandon his leadership position on climate change and immigration reform.

• Sarah Palin in Tampa on Sunday.
• What’s it sound like when you are a Congressman who is firing his mistress? Take a listen.
• Here’s the GOP death list, as obtained by DailyKos.
• You’d think that opponents of the anti-gay Amendment 2 could muster just over 4 in 10 voters to defeat the measure, but it is starting to look like you would be wrong…
• … and you can blame Obama and African-American voters.
• Regarding one Tampa neighborhood association: “Never have I observed the viciousness, sneakiness, name calling and just plain ugliness”
• AP giving in on its new, higher rates.
• The Rays win game two 4-2, even the World Series at one game a piece.
• Obama up seven in Florida.
• Alan Greenspan’s mea culpa.
• The Old Gray Lady squeezes in an endorsement of Barack Obama for President.
• Bullish on Bloomberg: NYC mayor wins right to run for third term.
• And today’s Florida teacher convicted of gettin’ it on with the kids hails from … Tampa!
• Bill Shatner unleashed.
• Those cutting edge antibiotics your doctor just gave you? They might be sugar pills.
• Going to Clearwater Saturday night? Beware the DUI checkpoint.

• Obama touches down in Jordan.
• Wachovia crumbles.
• McCain blames Obama for high gas prices. Up next, the JFK assassination and sinking of The Maine.
• The not-so-sordid tale of the McCain NY Times op-ed. At least one reporter thinks the Times did McCain a favor.
• What should St. Pete do with the Pier? The city would like you input.
• Texas prepares for an impromptu production of Hello Dolly.
• Madonna crumbles. 
• iPods about to get a price cut?

• The Feds move to rescue Fannie and Freddie.
• The July 21st edition of The New Yorker is sure to turn some heads.
• Bombs away?
• In the wake of IndyMac biting it, you might be wondering how many banks will fail before the economy rebounds? You don’t want to know …
• McCain in the NY Times: “I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no, I don’t believe in gay adoption.”
• Anheuser-Busch sells out to InBev for $52 billion. Bud Light suddenly tastes so much better now that it’s a product of Belgium.
• Down goes Miss USA!
• I go on vacation for one week and the baseball team goes completely to shit.
• Speaking of baseball: Home Run Derby tonight!