Writer Aaron Sorkin has hit the nail on the head again, with his new HBO series, “Newsroom.” The man who thrilled us with “West Wing” is getting inside the pitfalls and pride of news gathering in a way that makes you believe he’s been a journalist all his life.

His main character is a Republican newscaster who’s disgusted that his party has been overtaken by the Tea Party. In one broadcast, he ticks off their ideals and lays them bare:

“Ideological purity
Compromise as weakness
A fundamentalist belief in scriptural literalism
Denying science
Unmoved by facts
Undeterred by new information
A hostile fear of progress
A demonization of education
A need to control women’s bodies
Severe zenophobia
Tribal mentality
Intolerance to dissent, and a
Pathological hatred of the U.S. government.
They call themselves the Tea Party or Conservations; they even call themselves Republicans. But they should be called what they are, The American Taliban.”

Aaron Sorkin, I couldn’t have said it better myself.