Alterman IMPALES "William" Billy Kristol (with a swipe at Fred "Beltway Bozo" Barnes)

[UTUSN]

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http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070212/alterman

The liberal media | posted January 25, 2007 (February 12, 2007 issue)

Kristolizing the (Neoconservative) Moment

Eric Alterman

.... ...Kristol is less interested in being correct than in advancing his side's interests. He's not a journalist; he's an apparatchik working undercover as a man of the press. ....

Back in 1993, when Kristol admitted to just being a Republican strategist, he made a name for himself by writing a strategy memo in which he altered the course of American politics by convincing Republicans not to compromise with the Clinton Administration healthcare plan but to destroy it. "Any Republican urge to negotiate a 'least bad' compromise with the Democrats, and thereby gain momentary public credit for helping the president 'do something,'" he wrote, "if it can be beaten, it unravels other things. We have to beat the Clinton plan period, no ifs, ands or buts."

Note that he ignores not only the problems of tens of millions of uninsured Americans but also the merits of the plan itself. The issue was power, pure and simple. If you're seeking to locate the moment in which the era of right-wing Republican recalcitrance--which ended so badly for the party in the 2006 elections--was, um, crystallized, this memo gets my nomination.

OK fine, you say. He was not yet a journalist. And while his Manichean machinations on behalf of the Republican Party may strike one as morally questionable, they cannot be held against his journalism. That may be true, but I would argue that Kristol has changed hats, not stripes. How else to explain that nearly every time a major issue confronts the nation, his analysis is not merely wrong but spectacularly so, and always in the same direction, regardless of evidence or expertise. ... ....

When it comes to liberals and Democrats, Kristol is constantly insinuating disloyalty. "What drives so many Democrats crazy about Lieberman," he says, is that "he's unashamedly pro-American." Why did Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, the New York Times editorial page and others oppose Bush's invasion? "These liberals--better, leftists--hate George W. Bush so much they can barely bring themselves to hope America wins the war to which, in their view, the president has illegitimately committed the nation.... They hate Don Rumsfeld so much they can't bear to see his military strategy vindicated." After the massacre at Haditha, he said, "The anti-American left can barely be bothered to conceal its glee." Kristol has even, amazingly, chosen to echo the incendiary language of his father, Irving Kristol, in his 1952 semi-endorsement of Joe McCarthy, applying the same terms to the Democrats regarding terrorism: "The American people, whatever their doubts about aspects of Bush's foreign policy, know that Bush is serious about fighting terrorists and terrorist states that mean America harm. About Bush's Democratic critics, they know no such thing." ....

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[Sanity Claws]

1. His daddy was a McCarthy supporter?

That apple didn't fall from the tree. I think I have to read up about Irving but first I have to make sure that I have enough soap in the house to clean myself later.

[Bucky]

2. When that apple fell from the tree, it landed on its head

Sometimes it's like they're not even trying to look reasonable. I don't get how they can continue to fool 30% of the public.

[UTUSN]

3. Grab the soap. Here's the starting, Wiki, scoop on Daddy "used to be a Lib"

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Kristol

Irving Kristol (born January 22, 1920, New York City) is considered the founder of American neoconservatism. He is married to conservative author and emeritus professor Gertrude Himmelfarb, and is the father of William Kristol. He describes himself as a "liberal mugged by reality".

Kristol was born into a Jewish family. He earned his B.A. in History from the City College of New York in 1940, where he was an active Trotskyist. He wrote in 1983 that he was “proud” to have been a member of the Fourth International in 1940. <1> From 1941-1944, he served as staff sergeant in the armored infantry in Europe in World War II.

He was the managing editor of Commentary magazine from 1947 to 1952, cofounder of the British-based covertly CIA financed magazine Encounter and its editor from 1953 to 1958, editor of the Reporter from 1959 to 1960, executive vice-president of Basic Books from 1961 to 1969, and professor of social thought at the New York University Graduate School of Business from 1969 to 1988. Since 1988, he has been John M. Olin Distinguished Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Kristol is the founder of the politics and culture journal The Public Interest and the foreign affairs journal The National Interest. He was co-editor of The Public Interest (first with Daniel Bell, then with Nathan Glazer) from its founding in 1965 until 2002 and publisher of The National Interest from its founding in 1985 to 2001.

He is a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute since 1988, a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations since 1972, a member of the Wall Street Journal Board of Contributors since 1972, and president of National Affairs, Inc.

In July 2002, President George W. Bush awarded Kristol the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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[underpants]

4. One of the more sad things about Kristol is that given his legacy status due to his father

he still couldn't work anywhere but the cartoonish American Spectator. He and Fred Barnes used that as their stepping stone to the Washington Times and then to the Weekly Standard-which Kristol himself had to start.

That is just pathetic.

Oh and he was Alan Keyes roommate in grad school
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kristol

[UTUSN]

5. More PATHETIC, he was "Rove" to Mr PotatoE Dan QUAYLE

He couldn't find any HIGHER CALIBER mind to ramrod.

[melissinha]

6. he's a tool, turning his words around:

To bad Kristol hates Liberals so much he can barely bring himself to look at the damage the Bush administration has done, that the president has illegitimately committed the nation and finally by association the neoconservative faction to powerlessness. He hates liberals so much he can't bear to admit it was his and the neoconservative movement's actions have increased terrorism while it claims to fight it.

[applegrove]

7. I don't know who Kristal's audience is but they are neither logical, or adults.

I think he writes downs towards some base somewhere.