[Blind Eye Jones]

"For the next 20 minutes, he gave me a perfect description of Reinhold Niebuhr's thought, which is a very subtle thought process based on the idea that you have to use power while it corrupts you. And I was dazzled, I felt the tingle up my knee as Chris Matthews would say."

You have to use power while it corrupts you? To what end? More corruption? An ignoble state if ever there was one. These people are sophisticated dunces. Worse, they have no common sense.

[Tax-chick]

Barack Obama is on record as saying that he doesn’t think doing political favors for money is “corruption.”

[TAdams8591]

"You have to use power while it corrupts you?"

It's a strange concept/comment. My reaction to it was similar to yours. Furthermore, while power can be corrupting, it doesn't have to be.

[Billthedrill]

Brooks is a glib dunce. The quotation to which he was referring wasn't worth 20 minutes of dissertation or more than about five of thought. It is:

Goodness, armed with power, is corrupted; and pure love without power is destroyed.

One notes that although the reference is to the moral ambiguity of action it can also be used as an apologia for any bad action with good intention, which describes the liberal defense against the consequences of its own actions.

Niebuhr came to realize a few other things watching the Nazis murder 6 million people with their "noble" intentions, one of which is:

There are historic situations in which refusal to defend the inheritance of a civilization, however imperfect, against tyranny and aggression may result in consequences even worse than war.

I'd be happy to hear Brooks's comments on that one with regard to the imperfect but very successful defense of civilization in Iraq. I'm not holding my breath.