Before Rush was a colossus. Before Powerline and Instapundit.
There was George Will.
Will played politics, but not necessarily as a team player.
Years ago, seeking legitimacy in the mainstream media, he joined
ABC News' Sunday show to serve as the "conservative voice."
Most recently, he took time away from his schedule to introduce
Rudy Giuliani at CPAC, to great cheers. Today, Will
slammed former Sen. Fred Thompson for his support of campaign
finanance reform.
Does anyone see a problem here? Will openly supports a
pro-abortion, pro-gay, liberal Republican, and then he attacks a
pro-life, pro-family, fiscal conservative who isn't even in the
race yet?
Thompson has been pretty forthright about the campaign-finance
issue. He led the investigations into Clinton and Democrat Chinese
fundraising scandals. He saw the seedy underbelly of where the
Democrats were trying to take fundraising, and supported what at
the time some folks thought was a good idea. Not a perfect idea,
but a step toward putting the Democrat idea of donor outreach out
of reach.
In public statements he's recently made, Thompson has made it
clear that that good idea has gone wrong. Will doesn't bother to
deal with that little fact.
Will appears to be another victim of getting into the 2008 race
a bit too early. Instead of keeping his powder dry, he has thrown
his support behind a candidate who is no doubt a good leader, but
who is a liberal leader on just about every count. Now he had to
defend him.
That's fine. He should stick with Rudy and see how far that
takes him. But he should at least be intellectually honest enough
to give readers of his column - the few who read it on a Saturday,
no less - the full story.
topics:
Mainstream Media, Abortion
