• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Second rate reporter says what?

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. don’t touch it.”

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Mobile Menu

  • Four Directions Montana
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2024 Elections
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2008 / Shorter Bill Kristol

Shorter Bill Kristol

by John Cole|  February 4, 200810:25 am| 29 Comments

This post is in: Election 2008, Politics, I Read These Morons So You Don't Have To

FacebookTweetEmail

The Democrats are worse than McCain.

Seriously, how much are they paying this guy?

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Monday Open Thread
Next Post: Three Trillion Dollar Man »

Reader Interactions

29Comments

  1. 1.

    Zifnab

    February 4, 2008 at 10:26 am

    Assuming its by the word, they’re paying him his salary divided by 2.

  2. 2.

    Caidence (fmr. Chris)

    February 4, 2008 at 10:33 am

    This is #3 or #4 for Kristol, no?

    I think we can say now:

    The Times made a brilliant decision in hiring this guy. Makes all their Establishment-Left muttering look dignified and nuanced when this guy in the corner shits himself every time he opens his mouth.

    Brilliant. Gray Lady, I applaud you.

    But you still fucked us over with Judith Miller. Get back to work, I might by a Sunday Times in the next decade.

  3. 3.

    Jorge

    February 4, 2008 at 10:38 am

    Kristol is the political equivalent of a Penthouse letter writer. A spectators fanatastic distortions of reality.

  4. 4.

    Zifnab

    February 4, 2008 at 10:43 am

    Without McCain’s public advocacy and private lobbying, President Bush might not have reversed strategy and announced the surge of troops in January 2007. Without McCain’s vigorous leadership, support for the surge in Congress would not have been sustained in the first few months of 2007. So: No McCain, no surge.

    An interesting point in this piece, on a somewhat secondary note. Here we have a generally respected Republican Senator and a sitting Republican President sitting in an evenly split Congressional delegation. Senator stands up and bloviate on how a few thousand more troops would be all it took to go from losing in Iraq to Mission Accomplished 2: Electric Bugaloo. President hops on the fairy tale and goes chasing after victory for real this time, srsly. We trundle deeper into the clusterfuck.

    Without a dimwitted and arrogant Presidency, we never would have conducted a surge (or entered Iraq to begin with). But it took a loud and obnoxious Senator to put the “Surge” card on the table. Without leadership in the Senate, would we have seen more troops on the ground in Iraq? I somehow doubt it.

    Compare this to Dodd’s telecomm filibuster, in which skillful Senatorial leadership killed a bill championed by the Senator’s own caucus and rallied support against what would easily have been another Congressional roll-over.

    Getting good, competent, intelligent Senators into office is nearly as important as winning the Presidency. The Senators we elect in ’08 will be the voices that guide the party in ’10 and ’12 as well as the next batch of Presidential Candidates in ’16. Just worth noting.

  5. 5.

    Danton

    February 4, 2008 at 10:59 am

    The Times is paying Kristol $50,000 a year to write a column per week. You gotta pay for good comedy.

  6. 6.

    jnfr

    February 4, 2008 at 11:12 am

    He’s a very bad writer, and a very poor thinker. That doesn’t leave him with much to offer. Unless you’re looking for Republican talking points, in which case I guess he’s your go-to guy.

  7. 7.

    Dug Jay

    February 4, 2008 at 11:28 am

    He’s a very bad writer, and a very poor thinker. That doesn’t leave him with much to offer.

    I think that’s a tad unfair to one of BJ’s hosts.

  8. 8.

    TenguPhule

    February 4, 2008 at 11:48 am

    Kristol is the political equivalent of a Penthouse letter writer. A spectators fanatastic distortions of reality.

    Jorge, you had no call to go and insult Penthouse letters like that.

  9. 9.

    The Other Steve

    February 4, 2008 at 12:06 pm

    Seriously, how much are they paying this guy?

    Minimum wage, and the damn Democrats just voted him a pay raise last year!

  10. 10.

    RSA

    February 4, 2008 at 12:10 pm

    And by “worse than McCain”, I mean “less happy about waging war in the Middle East for the next hundred years”.

    I did like this bit:

    It’s not easy being a conservative movement in a modern liberal democracy. It’s not easy to rally a comfortable and commercial people to assume the responsibilities of a great power. It’s not easy to defend excellence in an egalitarian age. It’s not easy to encourage self-reliance in the era of the welfare state. It’s not easy to make the case for the traditional virtues in the face of the seductions of liberation, or to speak of duties in a world of rights and of honor in a nation pursuing pleasure.

    This is the long-winded political columnist’s version of Bush’s whine: “Being President is hard!”

  11. 11.

    Z

    February 4, 2008 at 12:35 pm

    You know, the dark wicked cynic in me has another theory about all this. We all know that McCain has p*ssed off a lot of Republicans: Evangelicals, Xenophobes, Lobbyists, Bush worshipers (who don’t think Rummy screwed up or that torture is bad), etc. So, on lot’s of levels, he is an apostate. I understand their dislike for the man. But, take Coulter, she gains if Hillary wins. Her brand of hate-lit gets huge sales for the next 4 years. With Romney, she gets to continue to pretend to live in a fantasy world where lies=truth and liberals (who are repeated pointing out the lying) are evil and anti-American. With McCain, there is a risk that he is going to get into office and put some blame on Bush and other Republicans for the mess.

    The pundit class cannot allow that. Their wingnut welfare depends on characterizing Democratic objections to bad policy and leadership as unpatriotic and dangerous.

  12. 12.

    NonyNony

    February 4, 2008 at 12:37 pm

    Senator stands up and bloviate on how a few thousand more troops would be all it took to go from losing in Iraq to Mission Accomplished 2: Electric Bugaloo. President hops on the fairy tale and goes chasing after victory for real this time, srsly. We trundle deeper into the clusterfuck.

    I’ve often wondered about that whole kabuki dance that led to the Surge. I figured McCain was laying out the talking points to be able to criticize Bush once he got to the general election (“If only the President had listened to me and sent in more troops we’d be winning.”) Then Bush undermines him by deciding that Straight Talk’s idea is a good one and thus we get “the Surge”. And Straight Talk suddenly has to jump on board to defend Bush’s war policies because suddenly they’ve become his babies.

    Honestly, I don’t think Straight Talk ever really believed that “the Surge” was a good idea – his talking point that he was hammering was to set up in people’s minds that Bush and Rumsfeld had bungled what should have been a good idea by not sending in more troops in the first place. Sometimes I wonder if Bush and Co. really thought the Surge was a good idea, or if they just wanted to undermine Senator Straight Talk’s ability to be critical of Our Fearless Leader – consequences be damned.

  13. 13.

    Garrigus Carraig

    February 4, 2008 at 12:38 pm

    Don’t close your eyes to the difference […] between resistance to big government and the embrace of it.

    Wait, who’s resisting big government? Is Kristol a Paul supporter now?

    It’s not easy to defend excellence in an egalitarian age.

    Oh, that’s brilliant. I guess he’ll be here all week, & we should try the veal. Seriously, I feel diminished after reading that.

  14. 14.

    Jake

    February 4, 2008 at 12:58 pm

    Getting good, competent, intelligent Senators into office is nearly as important as winning the Presidency.

    I’d go one further and say it is more important. Shit, I’d settle for CongressCritters who understood and defended the balance of power. The courts have to be sick of doing all the heavy lifting.

    It’s not easy being a conservative movement in a modern liberal democracy. It’s not easy to rally a comfortable and commercial people to assume the responsibilities of a great power [blah blah blah bark bleat].

    Is he calling for a draft? No?

    StFu Bill.

  15. 15.

    Caidence (fmr. Chris)

    February 4, 2008 at 1:02 pm

    It’s not easy to rally a comfortable and commercial people to assume the responsibilities of a great power

    Little does Kristol-Jr. realize that this was not only good for him, but necessary for him.

    If Democrats and college kids knew how to let go of their dicks and start doing things in gov’t, Krissy would have been out on his ass years ago.

    Irony, thy name is Kristol’s apprehension deficit.

  16. 16.

    The Other Steve

    February 4, 2008 at 1:21 pm

    I think it’s clear that the opposition in Iraq is purposefully working to make it look like Iraq is calm and peaceful because they want a Democrat to win the presidency.

    Then they will unleash their fully armed battlestation upon the unsuspecting masses.

    Vote John McCain!

  17. 17.

    ThymeZone

    February 4, 2008 at 1:34 pm

    Seriously, how much are they paying this guy?

    Seriously, I don’t know. Can anyone find this information?

  18. 18.

    D-Chance.

    February 4, 2008 at 1:38 pm

    Mark Levin wants to post a sober thought.

    Money quote: “If McCain moves to the right during the general election to try to appeal to more conservatives, Obama will be able to portray him as a disingenuous flip-flopper.”

    Understand, Levin is a Romney supporter. And I seriously doubt he was sober when he posted. No Romney supporter could claim to worry about McCain being a flip-flopper without a shot or two under the belt.

  19. 19.

    Ned Raggett

    February 4, 2008 at 1:44 pm

    Yeah, I noticed that as well. At least Freddoso over there immediately responded with due if polite incredulity.

  20. 20.

    Jake

    February 4, 2008 at 1:55 pm

    Seriously, I don’t know. Can anyone find this information?

    Smart ass answer 1: Ask his hooker.
    SAA 2: Too much. Even if he gets a buck a column.

    I’m not sure if it would be possible to find that information short of beating it out of someone. I think the best you could do is hunt around for the salary of a similarly popular columnist.

  21. 21.

    ThymeZone

    February 4, 2008 at 2:21 pm

    hunt around for the salary of a similarly popular columnist.

    Heh, somebody admired by six people in the White House, and three or four members of Ehud Olmert’s administration?

    And of course, Rick Moran.

  22. 22.

    Jake

    February 4, 2008 at 2:26 pm

    Sorry. Popular was a poor word choice. I was trying to stay away from “Clueless fuck who continually gets to waste ink despite the fact he is insanely wrong, wrong, wrong about everything in the multi-universe.”

    Should have said “distributed” or perhaps “syndicated.”

  23. 23.

    Belae

    February 4, 2008 at 2:27 pm

    From what i have read on other blogs (big media matt iirc) i believe kristol is being paid 5 bucks per words.

  24. 24.

    Emma Anne

    February 4, 2008 at 3:03 pm

    SAA 2: Too much. Even if he gets a buck a column.

    Even if he gets a free newspaper with his column in it.

  25. 25.

    Zifnab

    February 4, 2008 at 3:08 pm

    Honestly, I don’t think Straight Talk ever really believed that “the Surge” was a good idea – his talking point that he was hammering was to set up in people’s minds that Bush and Rumsfeld had bungled what should have been a good idea by not sending in more troops in the first place. Sometimes I wonder if Bush and Co. really thought the Surge was a good idea, or if they just wanted to undermine Senator Straight Talk’s ability to be critical of Our Fearless Leader – consequences be damned.

    I have my reservations about that theory too. McCain was nuzzling back up to Bush all through ’06 and ’07, in order to get his hands on the little black book of Bush Backers from ’00 and ’04. The Bush name carries a great many dollar signs.

    I don’t know if he genuinely intended to see a Surge take place. At one point, after the President proposed an extra 30k troops, I remember McCain mentioning something along the lines of really needing more like 60k or 80k to get the job done right, blah blah blah. But the point is that a Senator got up and talked his way into heavily influencing Iraq policy. Had John McCain been hit by a bus before he began his little Surge-o-thon, I don’t know if we’d have those extra troops invested in the country. Had Lieberman lost to Lamount, and the new freshman Senator from Connecticut had a floor to protest the war, I don’t know if we’d have seen the US moving in another direction by his guidance.

    The point being that Senators can have just as much influence on the process as Presidents, and an election of Obama or Clinton won’t get us out of Iraq on its own. You need Senators capable of winning over popular support for whatever good/bad/ugly strategies or ideas they cook up.

  26. 26.

    grandpa john

    February 4, 2008 at 3:36 pm

    The American conservative movement has been remarkably successful. We shouldn’t take that success for granted. It’s not easy being a conservative movement in a modern liberal democracy. It’s not easy to rally a comfortable and commercial people to assume the responsibilities of a great power. It’s not easy to defend excellence in an egalitarian age. It’s not easy to encourage self-reliance in the era of the welfare state. It’s not easy to make the case for the traditional virtues in the face of the seductions of liberation, or to speak of duties in a world of rights and of honor in a nation pursuing pleasure.

  27. 27.

    Z

    February 4, 2008 at 4:37 pm

    What Bill Kristol left out:

    Its not easy convincing others to let me speak on their TV programs or write columns in their paper when I have been consistently wrong about everything. It is not easy relentlessly supporting a clearly failed foreign policy by a inept leader. Its not easy saying and writing things that are demonstrably false. Its not easy looking clean, tanned, and cheerful when the truth is the Magical Unity Pony makes me cry.

  28. 28.

    Jake

    February 4, 2008 at 6:27 pm

    Jesus Christ:

    “White women are a problem, that’s, you know — we all live with that.”

    Shorter Billy K: I hates me some h****y bitches.

  29. 29.

    Thursday

    February 4, 2008 at 9:25 pm

    Isn’t the question why?

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • trollhattan on Henry Would Like His Lunch Right Now, Please (Open Thread) (Apr 15, 2024 @ 4:22pm)
  • WaterGirl on Righteous Rant Open Thread (Apr 15, 2024 @ 4:22pm)
  • cain on Henry Would Like His Lunch Right Now, Please (Open Thread) (Apr 15, 2024 @ 4:21pm)
  • zhena gogolia on Righteous Rant Open Thread (Apr 15, 2024 @ 4:20pm)
  • WaterGirl on Righteous Rant Open Thread (Apr 15, 2024 @ 4:19pm)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Talk of Meetups – Meetup Planning
Proposed BJ meetups list from frosty

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8
Virginia House Races
Four Directions – Montana
Worker Power AZ
Four Directions – Arizona
Four Directions – Nevada

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
Positive Climate News
War in Ukraine
Cole’s “Stories from the Road”
Classified Documents Primer

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Political Action 2024

Postcard Writing Information

Balloon Juice for Four Directions AZ

Donate

Balloon Juice for Four Directions NV

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2024 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!