In his Wednesday offering, New York Times columnist Frank Bruni went off the deep end, intoning, "Devin Nunes Is Dangerous."

After that, he paints a cartoon picture of a bumbling fool that bears zero resemblance to the respected House Committee on Intelligence chairman.  Cooking up out of his fevered imagination, Bruni unleashed vaudeville-style one-liners like these:

Representative Devin Nunes obviously fancies himself Jason Bourne.

"Inspector Clouseau investigation"

Nunes is so deep in the tank for Trump that he needs scuba gear.

He sounded more like a plumber than a politician.

All of this is irregular enough to peg him as a puppet of the Trump administration or a complete boob.

Hyuk, hyuk, hyuk.

Then he gets to what he really wants to say, which is that Nunes is not as...smart...as the Upper East Side elites and New York Times columnists such as Bruni himself.  Nunes, after all, comes from the part of California Bruni and his coevals wouldn't be caught dead in: the rural Central Valley.  And far from being lily-white like Frank and his minions, Nunes's family hails from Portugal.  What's more, he's a whippersnapper to the Bruni crowd, a man in his early forties, and worst of all, a farmer.  So how could he be as...sophisticated...as Bruni and his Upper West Side, Upper East Side, and Greenwich Village buddies?  Nunes to them is the "Bridge and Tunnel" crowd, as they say in those parts.

Bruni's pièce de résistance about Nunes comes in the form of anonymous insults from someone he claims is a Republican who doesn't have the balls to attach his name to them.

A Republican insider who once worked closely with him described him to me as an "overeager goofball" who can't see "the line between ingratiating and stupid." The insider said that Nunes crossed that line with John Boehner, the former House speaker, who gave him the committee chairmanship but grew weary of Nunes's indiscriminate pep and constant bumming of his cigarettes.

My source wondered why Paul Ryan hadn't kept a closer watch on Nunes, given his shortcomings. "No one is asking him to bring the potato salad to the Mensa picnic," my source said.

Bruni's anonymous source obviously has some problems, given that Nunes is the author of at least one well received book on how to restore the U.S. republic; has written stellar long pieces on California's water crisis, which have generated hundreds of thousands of readers; and was chosen for the Intelligence Committee job based on his evenhanded temperament, his ability to get an above-top-secret security clearance (something Ben Rhodes couldn't do), and his capacity to keep a secret.  He also is a known Russia skeptic, according to the Washington Post, meaning not someone who will do Russia any favors.  He is hardly a suck-up to anyone, given his independence in the House, which includes his occasional willingness to annoy Trump, the FBI, the CIA, and others, as well as take the political swarming from the rabid left that is enraged he hasn't come up with the "narrative" they want.  In response to those who asked if he would continue, Nunes said, "Why would I not?," sounding a lot like the late Andrew Breitbart, who told the left, "Apologize for what?"

And for God's sake, it's unlikely he's a smoker!  Not in his age group, and not in his social background.  Given the price of cigarettes, how would bumming them from John Boehner ingratiate Nunes to Boehner?  Does Bruni understand human nature?  A mooch is someone to be avoided!

Meanwhile, as for Bruni, the slew of insults he reports violates what normal journalists would require a name on for the sake of allowing readers to judge, given the potential for self-serving hogwash from people of no credibility, as well as phony sourcing.  One wonders if his sourcing is from Lindsey Graham himself, given the ignorant, intemperate statements Graham has made in the past; his obvious bitterness at being passed over for the Senate Russia cyber-hacking panel in January; and his known jealousy of Trump.

But just the inchoateness of the headline – calling Nunes dangerous, (oh really?) without being able to cite any danger, and then rolling into a slew of insults about stupidity – really signals that Bruni has no idea what he is talking about.  He can't even get what he wants to say straight.  Either Nunes is a sinister and evil force threatening to destroy us or he is stupid and bumbling.  Bruni tries to tie them together but falls flat.  He so desperately wants to call Nunes stupid.  But he knows that to sound chin-pulling serious, he needs to call him dangerous.  Such a dilemma!

So which is it?  Bruni seems to enjoy pushing the stupid and bumbling line because it makes him feel so superior and smart by comparison is the sense.  But his inability not to see this as a danger signals a meltdown.  Frank Bruni is going down like the green witch after the bucket of water has been thrown.