From a NY Times piece on the decline of the National Review:
Mr. Lowry said the magazine had never been a partisan cheerleader, and the role of the magazine during an Obama presidency would be to provide “intelligent, disciplined opposition.”
Speechless.
MattF
The key word here is disciplined, as in– well, you know.
Comrade Stuck
Sparkles!
Brian J
Every publication that takes a bunch of firm stances one way or the other is bound to seem like it’s partisan cheerleader for those elected officials that share its values every now and then. But even if you give the National Review more leeway than most magazines, it seems like there’s no way that this statement can’t be laughed at.
TheFountainHead
Well, when you live in an alternate reality to begin with, this isn’t that hard a statement to make.
bayville
Commrade John
I like this quote even better by Sparkles. On WFB, Jr.:
The Grand Panjandrum
In your last thread you said you were a moron. Not true. But you do link to them … OK I don’t really believe Manzi is a moron but the folks at NRO need some time to stew in their own juices. They will then either "get it" or they will disappear. Lowry’s comment confirms that he does not have a grip on reality and to this day does not understand how badly Bush has fucked up this country. I often wonder if he, and others at NRO, actually believe what they say and write. The lack of self-awareness is breath taking if they do.
Objective Scrutator
I do know that they have been quite partisan about Francisco Franco. If my dreams come true, then maybe I can dig up an article where they praise Augusto Pinochet.
There were numerous criticisms of the RINO Rockefeller and especially of Palin. Kathleen Parker now needs to be burned at the stake for the good of the world.
Comrade Jake
As with Palin-ese, the quote makes sense if you cut out the middle, as in:
There, that seems right.
Quaker in a Basement
Did Mr. Lowry also contend that the magazine had never been printed on paper? That it does not use "words" or "punctuation"? That wild bears practice modern hygiene?
I can imagine only two possibilities: Mr. Lowry has suffered a traumatic brain injury or he has deployed a heretofore unimagined caliber of balls out lying.
EDIT: Point taken, T-Mo. Strike "or" and replace with "and".
The Moar You Know
@Quaker in a Basement: Why can’t it be both?
ed
We’re winning!
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
Somewhat OT, but…..
My main takeaway from last night’s 60 Minutes: just how much better BO had to be than anyone else to be elected when Running While Black. If he’s not presidential, then who is?
Other than Sparkles Palin, I mean…
wvng
John, sgwhiteinfla at Swampland suggests that you should have noted:
I suggested that you would consider that redundant.
bago
This is mister "We’re Winning" starbursts. Someone needs to re-write the article to reflect that.
AkaDad
Riiight. And this blog is a snark-free zone.
Balconesfault
Reminds me of Colbert on Fox being Fair and Balanced:
Zifnab
Ah, IC. They are providing non-partisan opposition. As opposed to partisan opposition. Because they are not partisans, they are fair and balanced. And they will be opposing Barack Obama on grounds that are devoid of partisan nature. Like… uh… his favorite flavor of lollypops. Or his picks for the NFL Playoffs. Or the fact that he’s a freak’n secret atheist fifth column anti-American muslim terrorist.
And thank god, because we need more magazines that provide opposition to Democratic Presidencies like we need more cockroaches in our local Motel 6. Without the NRO providing and exercising its citizenry duties, who else would we turn to for pooh-flinging xenophobic baseless hate speech? TownHall.com can’t carry this load all on its own.
Comrade Dread
I want some of his meds.
maxbaer (not the original)
@Quaker in a Basement: This would be in the same sense that Malkin is not a cheerleader?
ezdidit
Memo to Democrats: Ignore the opposition. They are still trying to f**k up government …just.like.Bush.
In pursuit of ideas, any at all, they cannot or will not grasp that Republicans are wrong about free markets and competition. The very purpose of government is governance: exercise of authority, control and management. Regulation is a necessary part of that. Religion has nothing to do with it, but Republicans are now beholden to the pastors and corporations.
Regulation of faulty products, whether they be pharmaceuticals, monopolies, potential environmental toxins or credit default swaps, is the proper role of good government.
Until they can prove that they and their corporate and religious masters can be trusted, Republicans will be out in the wilderness. It isn’t even close! And their small factions have no other political entities to join.
I look forward to their continued marginalization as they alienate their best thinkers among their governors, their Senators and their Congressmen. They will have to ideologically jump ship for reelection.
dr. bloor
You may as well help yourself. Lowry’s obviously not taking them.
jrg
Hilarity. The NR lost both Frum and Buckley over their blind support for Palin, now they are claiming their role is anything other than partisan?
…And where are they going to find this “intelligent, disciplined opposition"? Starbursts Lowry? K-Lo? The National Review is staffed with mindless partisan hacks. Part of the problem with the GOP’s pandering to the lowest common denominator is the fact that the lowest common denominator cannot read.
Lowry, visionary that he is, must have just realized that catering to a crowd that cannot read is a bad business model for a magazine.
He’s on to something. Next thing you know, he’ll figure out that the 15 remaining literate conservatives don’t want to read about him popping a woody over a VP pick.
TheHatOnMyCat
The history of public policy for the last hundred years has been about government stepping up to various responsibilities to citizens, and about the necessity of institutions. In other words, it’s been about progressive policy.
The NR has come from a culture that is about labeling government as "the problem, not the solution."
That’s a pretty big gap there, and NR is on the wrong, and losing, side of it.
They can flail their arms and yell whatever they want, just look at this map and you can figure out what it going on. We are entering a time of great dependence on institutions, and the ideas of CATO and NR are not going to feed the bulldog.
Bush’s tranwreck attempt to push for "reform" of Social Security in 2005 should have been a tipoff to the right that their worldview was a little out of whack. Okay, they didn’t get it. Now we have the 2008 election. Is our Republican children learning?
James
Is this in the same rhetorical frame as "Look, we’ve never been stay the course."???
I take those meds. Wouldn’t work for anyone at The Corner.
Svensker
FTW.
Dennis - SGMM
Here’s how stupid conservatives are:
Or:
There’s much more at the above-quoted NYT article.
Tony J
I don’t see the problem. Mr Lowry is obviously just pointing out that his publication has never expressed support for ‘partisan resistance movements’, which in this case is shorthand for the Iraqi Insurgency. And I’m sure no one here would contest that.
What else could he have meant? Also.
Siryn
Okay, that almost brought tears to my eyes with laughter. Them, not partisan? Give us a break.
Balconesfault
Well, not just like Bush.
Bush f**ked up government because it was the best way to make lots of money for his cronies. On the upside (deregulation, tax cuts, big contracts to create messes) and on the downside (bailouts, privatization of public assets, big contracts to cleanup messes).
Now, the “intelligent, disciplined opposition" will oppose Obama simply because the Bush model is the only one they understand. They don’t believe anyone wants to run government to actually make it better – it only exists to enrich one’s cronies. And if they can stop Obama and Pelosi and Reid from enriching their cronies, that’s the Republican pathway back to power.
It’s a fundamental difference in the role of Government. They truly do believe that they’re non-partisan, because they can’t even understand what we think the purpose of Government is.
Jamey
There’s no possible way Lowry believes that. I’ll bet that the moment after he hung up the phone with the , he IM’d the Cornerites and bragged that he punk’d the NYT.
Tymannosourus
It is a violation of the Law of Armed Conflict to wear an enemy’s uniform as a disguise. Lowry has decided to try to pass himself off as a non-partisan right as the Republican fortress is under siege.
John S.
That’s pretty damn funny coming from Rich "Sparkles" Lowry.
He’s never been a partisan cheerleader, except the only compelling reason he could give for liking Sarah Palin is that she gave him a woody.
bago
Laws are for little people.
demimondian
@AkaDad: FTW
Trollhattan
"Intelligent" is simply beyond their grasp, or conception for that matter. Any organization that associates K-Lo with the word "editor" has established that much.
"Disciplined" is likely to involve restraints and double scuba suits in the Xerox room.
Extra sparkly!
Trollhattan
On a related note, have folks seen Cavett’s take on the Wild Wordsmith of Wasilla? One for the archives.
http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/the-wild-wordsmith-of-wasilla/?em
Brick Oven Bill
That the New York Times, which has dropped from $50/share to $7.30/share in the past five years, is gossiping about the decline of anybody, is rather rich.
Just listen to me. I know what is going on and am honest. I am not like the others.
Mr. Mises
Well, a few NR writers did criticize Palin once it was obvious she was a mistake. But they were eviscerated. It’s pointless experimenting with an "intelligent, disciplined" non-partisan opposition schtick when your base readership is nuts.
Dennis - SGMM
David Frum Bails on National Review
"The ostracizing will continue until our numbers increase."
bago
Re: Stock prices. Do you REALLY want to go there?
Tymannosourus
Time for a bailout.
Original Lee
There is too much poo in this exhibit.
Englischlehrer
I read this on the plane from barcelona to basel today and was shocked how a few parts of the article were missing the other aspect, like here’s national review’s opinion of itself and here is what a critic says.
On a better note, the NY Times today in an article quoted kos and greg sargeant while talking about clinton’s possible secretary of state job. If the NY Times is quoting those guys, news is changing and for the better.
Brachiator
Of course, it’s not just the National Review. The Economist pundit using the byline Lexington recently wrote a devastating piece on the embrace of stupidity by the GOP ("Ship of Fools"):
What’s even more fun is to watch how whenever the GOP begins to acknowledge the problem, they quickly fall back on the idea that if only they hold onto their "principles" even more strongly, then the voters who have so soundly rejected them will eagerly fall back into their warm embrace.
Dennis - SGMM
If they make it conditional on having William Kristol tarred and feathered on live network television I’m all in favor of it.
Zifnab
@Dennis – SGMM: Unpossible! If the last four years have taught us anything, its that people don’t like liberals and if you just give them more conservative principles, you win.
Scott H
“Who says public discourse hasn’t deteriorated?” Kathleen Parker.
I say. What these tenured mandarins mean by "public discourse" is tossing their scraps from cozy, corner round-tables to the masses huddled outside the door.
As a paleoconservative (a nomen I use for convenience only), I am enjoying watching the Right having their reactionary margins called and the stampede to shelter themselves in the embrace of progressive positions. For example, catch the latest PJ O’Rourke at The Weekly Standard – which I won’t privilege with a link.
The Moar You Know
@Brick Oven Bill: Damn right. You are "special".
J.
…the role of the magazine during an Obama presidency would be to provide “intelligent, disciplined opposition.”
Well, that would be new.
Hey, did you all catch "60 Minutes" last night, with Steve Kroft interviewing the Obamas? Great TV. The spouse and I particularly enjoyed the Obamas discussing household chores.
ezdidit
Indeed.
Gramm is still peddling his de-regulatory crap in NYT this morning. (It’s hard to believe that this article still attempts to make Democrats part of the problem when it was The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that lit the fuse.) It has HIS OWN NAME on it and he’s denying it.
…maybe the religionists will exit the party when they get back to their core principles…something about "not bearing false witness" …or did Gramm rewrite that one, too?
The Moar You Know
Once you have unabashedly declared yourself the party of the stupid and ignorant, your options for dealing with your own internal problems become very limited.
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
@ezdidit:
Win.
What a bizarro world we live in, where middle- and lower-income morons believe the GOP is their friend, where Joe the Plumber campaigned for policies that would only benefit him if his income quadrupled.
Trollhattan
Now that’s dishing up pure Win.
fisheye
If Republicans thought to hard before they acted, they’d have nothing to do.
I guess that’s what Buckley meant by ‘standing athwart history’.
And Lowry must mean, history isn’t a political party.
Dennis - SGMM
@fisheye:
Aw, their only mistake was to confuse mindless cheer leading a mindless cheer leader with journalism.
Tonybrown74
Digby came up with a new term for this up-is-downism/black-is-white-ism: it’s called hugging the panda, in reference to Bill O’Reilly’s appearance on the daily Show recently.
Garrigus Carraig
@Tonybrown74: It was dday.
The Grand Panjandrum
@Dennis – SGMM: That’s cheerleading you can believe in.
Allan
My favorite comment from Sparkles:
Yeah, there’s no better way to prove the rigor of your principled conservative analysis than to base a stupid quip on an already discredited canard about a liberal.
Keep digging, Sparkles. I think I hear Chinese music…
ET
Why isn’t that much self-delusion fatal?
Joshau Norton
I’m wondering at what point it causes actual physical pain. They must be pretty close to it by now.
binzinerator
A magazine expressly created to attempt to affect the nation — and by extension the world — by shaping the direction and tone of our political discourse, and yet when it comes to accountability it is the world alone that is responsible for what NR has published.
Fucking asshole. These guys were at the core of conservatism in general and the GOP in particular for decades. Now this fucker wants to pretend he had nothing to do with it, it’s somebody else’s fault.
Classic republicanism. Preach personal responsibility and then shrug off any responsibility. Even Brookhiser’s pronouns shift — "I" and "we" change to the impersonal and generic "you" when he talks about accountability.
It’s exactly like "mistakes were made", a phrase commentator William Safire has defined as "a passive-evasive way of acknowledging error while distancing the speaker from responsibility for it". Except Brookhiser isn’t even acknowledging any error.
Ah yes Brookhiser you gooper dumbfuck. You can’t be responsible for the world. Now shrug your shoulders and walk away while muttering "Who woulda thunk we wouldn’t find any WMDs. Who woulda thunk we wouldn’t be greeted as liberators. Who woulda thunk those levees wouldn’t hold. Who woulda thunk those banks wouldn’t do what was necessary to protect their shareholders and institutions. Who woulda thunk…"
ezdidit
Eric Cantor (R. VA-07), Deputy Minority Whip, is just another tool.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Stolen.
The big tent will soon become a bunch of rain ponchos draped over branches and they will have no idea why.
Popcorn?
ezdidit
The problem is that fundie Millennial authoritarians don’t believe that Democrats can operate as authoritarians. All the pieces are in place for Obama to take over that role, but the morons’ perverted thinking will lead them to conclude that he is the antichrist if he is too forceful -and a babykiller if he rescinds restrictions on birth control.
Calouste
@Brachiator:
The Conservative party has always been run by Oxford (and to a lesser extent Cambridge) "high-fliers". Most recently: Thatcher- Oxford, Hague-Oxford, Howard-Cambridge, Cameron-Oxford. That didn’t prevent them from being the stupid party.
Bush went to Yale for fcuk’s sake, that didn’t prevent him from promoting teh stoopid either.
Zifnab
@Calouste:
Yes, but you’re confusing the liars with the useful idiots. Phil Graham, for instance, was very skilled at lying to his constituency about the merits of unregulated business. He knew better, but he also knew what would make a giant truck load of money. So he promoted the latter.
Bush going to Yale was a case of pure nepotism and had nothing to do with his intellectual prowess. He wasn’t promoting much of anything – at least any more than the Jolly Green Giant promotes green beans or Kermit the Frog promotes the letter K. I wouldn’t say Bush was the brains behind the current administration. I doubt he’d have had the brain power to even consider invading Iraq if Rummy and Cheney hadn’t walked him through it.
JGabriel
Rich Lowry talked to the New York Times? Without preconditions?
Why that no good commie bastard! Sitting down and talking to the pre-eminent organ of the liberal elite, the evil leftist enemy of the right!
I’m shocked, shocked I tell you. Just… shocked.
.
Calouste
@Zifnab:
My point was more taken down the idea postulated in the Economist that the Tories are doing well (as in having a good chance to win the next General Election) because they are run by some Oxford people. They have always been run by Oxford and Cambridge people, just as Labour is currently run by Oxford and Cambridge people (half the cabinet is from Oxbridge).
Bush was just a (well-know) example that going to a big name university doesn’t necessarily mean you are smart, understand smart or even appreciate smart.
People do get into big name universities for reasons other than academic prowess. David Cameron is a good poster child for that as well. He is about as upper class as you can get this side of nobility.
Dennis - SGMM
Bush’s sole qualification for admittance to Yale was having the right sperm donor.
Punchy
Dont ever let old people give their retarded version of the shocker….
Sarah
Pure comedy, that~
Boadicea
Rich, sit down, it’s time for a little talk.
Winks through the teevee machine aside, she’s a married woman, and she’s just not that into you.
Mike G
Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, who praised Ms. Palin’s “unashamed embrace of bedrock conservative principles”
Yes, Bedrock principles from the era of the Flintstones, like riding dinosaurs to church and propelling cars with bare feet.
Meanwhile, Rich Lowry sprung another woody at the mention of the words ‘Palin’ and ‘bed’ in the same sentence.
AhabTRuler
Is Obama the Antichrist?
Newsweek wants to know.
h/t: S,N!
gbear
OT as usual, but this will render you speechless too. From the Mpls StarTribune:
What an asshole.
Delia
@gbear:
That’s just too weird, especially for a Monday. I wish I didn’t know that. Now I must go rake the leaves out of my gutter and hope that clears this knowledge from my mind.
Comrade Stuck
Prince is a nutwad, always has been, and apparently always will be. Fuck him and his narcissistic hypocritical blather.
TheHatOnMyCat
Heh.
Objective Scrutator
@ gbear: Prince has dressed up as a woman before. In Biblical times, that would also warrant a stoning.
Personally, I think we should ship sexual deviants off to Iraq, so that they can be cannon fodder and diversions for our troops. Despite his righteous homophobia, Prince would still die alongside his squabbling homosexual foes in a just society.
Svensker
That para is just too many shades of weird. Also, I don’t understand what it means.
TheHatOnMyCat
Pretty sure it means one of our favorite spoofs is back in the saddle, but he is not owning up to it.
Svensker
Really? With a link to Calvinists4Conservatism? Is that a spoof, too? Maybe the entire Bush 8-years was a spoof, as well! And Rush and Sean, too! Wouldn’t that be great? OK, everyone take off the masks and starting acting normal! I am so down with a huge drop in the level of insanity. But I believe the answer to these questions is, as always, sadly, no.
Dennis - SGMM
There are few things more tedious than a reformed sinner.
Tymannosourus
@Objective Scrutator:
your medication is in your bathroom just screaming to be taken.
TheHatOnMyCat
Let me check the Magic 8 Ball.
(time passes)
Ask me again later.
r€nato
well now I don’t feel so bad for downloading his music with my bittorrent client.
Not that he’s done anything worthy of listening to – let alone paying for – for at least the last 10 years.
kommrade reproductive vigor
But if you become filthy rich by singing about people sticking it wherever that’s A-OK.
Yaaawn. Sounds like another publicity stunt to me.
Comrade Tax Analyst
Hazy replies again, eh?
Was that Magic 8-Ball perchance manufactured in China? We’ve heard reports that some of their Magic 8-Balls contain excessive amounts of melanin that causes some of their answers to be less than spot-on in the accuracy area, although when I checked with my American-made 8-Ball (circa early 1960’s) it indicated that "Ask again later", "COULD BE TRUE!".
kommrade reproductive vigor
Please say you mean melamine so I can stop laughing and feeling guilty.
Comrade Tax Analyst
Well, it’s certainly a HUGE shock to me that such an normal, everyday fellow like The-Artist-Formerly-Known-As-Prince, later-known-as-the-"Infinity"-symbol, has now turned into the a Bible-Thumping Moron-soon-to-be-known-as-"That-Stupid-Fucking-Schmuck-Who-Rode-His-Faux-Gender-Bending-Pose-To-Fabulous-Unwarranted-Riches-And-Now-Feels-The-Need-To-Put-A-Down-Payment-On-A-Stairway-To-Heaven".
Progress
Conservative Principles —- the ultimate oxymoron.
demimondian
@Svensker: You do realize that a spoof can link to serious sites, right?
demimondian
@Brick Oven Bill: I’m enjoying the contributions of Brick Oven Mitt, by the way. More — it’s full of sparklies.
razajac
Balconesfault sez the Bush model is the only one they (NRO/neocon types) know.
Not so. They’re well-aware that government is only as good as the people in it—and that, from time to time, good-willed people find themselves holding the reins.
Furthermore, the wingers are then ready, willing, and quite able to rise to that occasion, and fling gold-plated monkey wrenches into the machinery of good government at any cost of personal and national wealth, and national moral standing and self-respect.
It’s a very sick and sad feature of politics-as-usual.
Delia
Oh fine. I’ve finished raking up my leaves. I come back and you’ve done nothing but talk about this idiot. Now I’ll never this weirdness out of my brain. At least I don’t live in California anymore. I don’t have to worry about the artist-formerly-known-as-Prince coming to my door and Jehovah Witnessing me. I don’t know if the state can take it. What with wildfires and a collapsing state budget, this is just too much.
demimondian
@kommrade reproductive vigor: Nah, he’s just committing a well-known American crime: Scrying while Black.
Chuck Butcher
Back after the ’94 elections I subscribed to NR so I could keep an eye on what the oppo was up to – and I thought I’d at least get some Buckley. I have seldom agreed with Buckley, but he could write and sometimes reason clearly. What I got was a skinny magazine with sophmoric writing and 4 paragraphs of Buckley on Page Last that had about not squat to do with anything.
Don’t think I was making the mistake of thinking I was subscribing to the rag expecting to agree with it or even like its point of view, I expected to be pissed. I don’t consider myself a great writer but when I can out perform people paid perfectly good money…
If it has taken a slide from that position, it’s not even useful for lining the bottom of the garbage can. I let the subscription run out after the 12 week period. Yes, I’ve read the blogs, but not the paper article – not ever since then.
eyeball
Damn. This is the kind of stupid shit that gives white people a bad name.
Athenawise
Actually, I think the National Review is more a flag girl than a cheerleader.
Fulcanelli
Their stupidity is their deadliest weapon. Brilliant!
These Malkin pix on the PJ Media ads give me the creeps. They look like some sort of Smoking Gun mug shots or something.
Person of Choler
It’s also fun to read The National Review on the decline of The New York Times.
One day NYT’s star economics columnist gets a Nobel Prize and and a few days later NYT bonds are downrated to junk.
mclaren
Well, it’s fairly accurate, you know. The Nazi Review has never played the role of a "partisan cheerleader," they’ve served a function more along the lines of Lee Harvey Oswald in the window of the Texas Schoolbook Despository.