All Intensive Purposes

One wonders if David Broder's prenatural refusal to ascribe bad motives to anyone in politics -- for example:

I have been a consistent critic of the Republican tax and budget policies. But it is my view that those who advocate those policies believe them to be beneficial to economic growth. You may believe it is all a conspiracy to enrich the super-rich. But we have to part company when you got down that road.

-- is a sort of religious belief, a (mistaken) empirical assessment, a studied pose that he accepts as necessary to do his job, or a convention that he is no longer able to reconsider. In any event, it's maddening.