MOTHER JONES BY E-MAIL

«--Previous Post | Blog Index | Next Post--»

Another Prominent Republican Screwing With the Democrats

Yesterday, Karl Rove was shamelessly contradicting himself in order to create confusion in the Democratic presidential race. Today, it's Bill Kristol.

Kristol in today's Times:

Furthermore, if you add up the votes in all the primaries and caucuses — excluding Michigan (where only Hillary was on the ballot), and imputing the likely actual totals in the four caucus states, where only percentages were reported — Clinton now trails in overall votes by only about 300,000, or about 1 percent of the total. By the end of the nominating contest, she may well be ahead on this benchmark — one not entirely to be scorned in a democracy.

Kristol during the 2000 presidential recount saga:

As a matter of constitutional law, the nationwide popular vote is an entirely irrelevant consideration here. No man has ever campaigned for the nationwide popular vote, and no man has ever been elected president because he's won it. Like it or not, the Electoral College is everything. Intimating otherwise, and in the same breath circulating fictions about polling-place irregularities, the Gore camp has done its best to ensure that should George W. Bush eventually be elected president, some faint whiff of illegitimacy will hang over his administration. It will be unfair and corrosive.

When the Times hired Kristol I called him intellectually dishonest (among other things) and that's certainly evidenced here. The man will say anything that suits his purposes, and I think that is grounds for ignoring him completely. And don't say, "Well, the first way to ignore him would be to not blog about his self-serving contradictions." The real first way to ignore him would be to not give him a column in the most prominent newspaper in America.

Comments

Pot calling kettle black? By you're rationale, you shouldn't be making money off what you write. Granted this is just the internet. Still, you calling Kristol out for intellectual dishonesty is laughable.

Posted by: dan on 04/29/08 at 11:21 AM Respond

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the first comment about the primaries and the second about the general election? If so, then WTF are you talking about? Please think a little bit before casting judgement on someone else.

Posted by: Robert on 04/29/08 at 1:37 PM Respond

You are spot on with pointing out the utter hypocricy of this neo-liberal shock doctrine advocate, and printing it out in plain text so that all can see it in stark relief [except the two comments above, who seem to have their head in the sand [or some other dark place :-)

This guy is a dangerous man, ready to say anything that will give his neocon cronies an advantage. I am still confused as to why the NYTimes hired this turkey [an apt term, I think] since he has his own pulpit of the Weekly Standard. I don't think it was due to political agreement, and it may indicate just how serious the circulation problem is for the Times.

I think that Kristol is a good "canary in the mine:" anyone who has this fascist for an advisor is someone to avoid like the plague.

Posted by: Victor Edwards on 04/29/08 at 7:16 PM Respond

Had the author attempted to claim being "rationale" there would be reason to fault him.

I thought that was author was being quite rational.

Kristol has no business masquerading as an intellectual either.

Posted by: SecondComing on 04/29/08 at 10:00 PM Respond

Dan - wtf are you talking about? You're a wreck. Where's your evidence of Stein contradicting himself?? And if the internet's so lame, why are you wasting your time here? Pull it together man.

Robert - I see your point sort-of. But I don't think it really makes a difference what race we're talking about, that obfuscates a larger issue. Either one pays attention to popular vote counts or not. I think casting judgment here is warranted.

Posted by: sal on 04/30/08 at 8:45 AM Respond

Kristol is a NeoCon. A Zionist of the worse sort. This just goes to show you the power of the NeoCon Zionists.

Posted by: Doris on 04/30/08 at 3:00 PM Respond