When I heard the outrage about William Kristol’s selection for the New York Times op\/ed section, I didn’t get it. So what if Kristol was wrong about the war in Iraq and a lot of other things? So what if he’s a conservative ideologue? How is he any worse than other pundits?<\/p>\n
I’m a busy man and I don’t have time to think the issue through.<\/p>\n
I’m no fan nor a critic of Bill Kristol.<\/p>\n
I read Charles Kaiser<\/a>‘s outrage (in Radar) over Kristol but it made no sense to me.<\/p>\n Luckily for the clarity of my thought, Jack Shafer wrote about the brouhaha for Slate<\/a>. Jack often solves problems for me that I don’t have the time or ability to understand:<\/p>\n Last week’s appointment<\/a> of Weekly Standard <\/em>Editor William Kristol to a once-a-week slot on the New York Times<\/em> op-ed page induced grand mal seizures among the Huffington Post <\/em>left and their political bedfellows.<\/p>\n A "supercilious man," wrote Nora Ephron<\/a>, who called for Kristol’s dismissal before he filed his first column. A "confirmed propagandist," added Erica Jong<\/a>. An "ideological bully and thug," wrote Katha Pollitt<\/a>. Jane Smiley<\/a> upped the ante to "a war-monger and a hate-monger" while Charles Kaiser<\/a> wrote, with apparent endorsement, that many "Times<\/em> readers consider Kristol a third-rate neocon apparatchik."<\/p>\n Speaking for the multitudes, David Corn<\/a> writes that it’s "bizarre" that after editorializing against the Iraq war since before the beginning, the Times<\/em> would hire one of the conflict’s "chief cheerleaders." And Josh Marshall<\/a> asked what sense the hire made when Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. already has David Brooks—"the house-broken William Kristol"—writing for op-ed page unless Sulzberger "got some sort of two for one deal or other kind of group discount."<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Matt Drudge is unimpressive tonight. The networks are reporting Caucus results already and Matt had nothing for half an hour (now he updates).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I heard the outrage about William Kristol’s selection for the New York Times op\/ed section, I didn’t get it. So what if Kristol was wrong about the war in Iraq and a lot of other things? So what if … Continue reading