The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Douthat and Kristol

Text Size

Douthat and Kristol

By Wlady Pleszczynski on 3.13.09 @ 12:39PM

Jim: "At least as good [as Bill Kristol] on social conservatism"? I don't recall Bill Kristol ever calling himself "squishy" on life issues, as Douthat is quoted in the NYT's report of his hiring:

On abortion, he said in an interview, “I’m sort of a squishy pro-lifer,” interested in finding areas of compromise. He initially favored the war in Iraq, but later opposed it.

Maybe the Times here was trying to clip Douthat wings from the outset. Maybe Douthat was merely playing possum. But I also don't recall Kristol ever cutting and running, New Republic style, regarding Iraq.

That finally brings me to what irks me most here: much of the commentary about the Douthat hiring goes out of its way to take cheapo shots at Kristol and how awful he was as a NYT columnist. The fact remains, he brought 20 plus years of seasoned political experience to his work, an astute and intelligent insider who also always had his eyes on a bigger picture. There's no substitute for that, at the Times or anywhere else.

View all comments (4) | Leave a comment

Seymour Kleerly| 3.13.09 @ 1:07PM

Bill Kristol is a national treasure and should be consulted by all patriotic Americans. He is on a spectacular roll now and his opinion should serve as the opposite of what this wounded country should do.

Jeremiah| 3.13.09 @ 3:10PM

Kristol's a fine editor, commentator, and writer.

However, none of his talents were apparent during his tenure at the Times.

I suppose you could argue that this was because he didn't have respect for the publication. His columns were weak and often simply repeated what he'd said the night before on that moronic Fox News show he wastes his time on.

Willey| 3.13.09 @ 3:41PM

NYSlimes is a dead ragsheet. I couldn't care less who writes for this piece of crap.

Steven Duque| 3.24.09 @ 6:07PM

An interesting take on Douthat's earlier career by Greg Atwan, Author of "Privilege" and "The Facebook Book:

http://bigthink.com/blog_entries/498-A-Portrait-of-Ross-Douthat-as-a-Young-Republican

EXCERPT:
"There’s a lot of promise in conservative circles—and terror in liberal ones—that Douthat (DOW-thut) can return the loyal-opposition spot at the paper of record to its Safirian glory days: He seems to possess neither Kristol’s wince-worthy GOP-line orthodoxy nor David Brooks’ exhausting tepidness. And unlike both, but like Safire, he’s a gorgeous prose stylist. Privilege, his memoir of being the odd thinker out at another giant, floundering liberal institution—Harvard College—is honeyed and beautiful and worth picking up for, if nothing else, a shockingly non-homoerotic narrative of skinny-dipping with the late William F. Buckley."