Posted on 03/11/2009 7:07:13 PM PDT by anniegetyourgun
Harold Simmons would work don’t ya think?
From the Times' article:
His writing steers away from partisanship — he frequently criticizes Republicans — or doctrine, showing a concern for income inequality that is usually the terrain of more liberal writers. 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.
A perfect "conservative" for the Times. We don't want any 'partisanship' at the paper of record, do we now?
No Petronski, get the chip off your shoulder! Agony of life guy simply meant a person looking for some reason to live. If he finds it in the Catholic Church, good for him.
He must feel like the lone black guy at a KKK convention.
He won’t be gay. That’s my prediction
But lacking his rugged, manly demeanor.
At the NY Times, a conservative is a homosexual who limits himself to 4 partners or less per rave.
Ross Do-You-That. Unfortunately, he’s kind of a male Megan McCain. Co-wrote ‘Grand New Party’ (eye roll)—one of those recent books telling the Republican Party how to moderate itself.
Here’s a description and oh-so-key endorsement:
From Publishers Weekly:
Coauthored by Atlantic Monthly writers Douthat and Salam, this book (like David Frum’s Comeback) is part of a movement to reconstruct the Republican Party’s core principles and reinvigorate the conservative electorate. The authors’ strategy is to win back the working class through a combination of prudent government intervention and entrepreneurship. Relying on a bevy of sociological analysis, class scrutiny and historicism—a style resembling New York Times columnist David Brooks’s, but stripped of his literary flair—Douthat and Salam take a nuts-and-bolts approach, perhaps because their book is prescriptive rather than observational, policy advocacy not entertainment. Whether or not readers will agree with the tenor of their arguments, rarely have moderate conservative ideas been so intelligently streamlined and so self-consciously pruned of conservatism’s hairier iterations. The real holes in the text are the lack of cogent discussions on immigration and the war against radical Islam—the very issues currently shaping working-class politics in America. Nevertheless, this book is stuffed with fresh and brilliant ideas and presents a solid domestic conservative agenda to win over blue-collar workers. (July)
Review
“Concise, penetrating and insightful.... The core Republican and conservative establishment should read this book.”
—The New York Times
David Frum must be weeping. “All that work I did attacking Rush and you give the token conservative post to that kid!”
Seriously, Douthat is an interesting guy and almost always worth reading. But the problem with the “new reformer” types (Douthat, Frum, Brooks, et. al.) is that they let the liberal establishment set the agenda and define the acceptable parameters of debate. The new reformers try to come up with not-quite-so-liberal solutions but always make sure to stay inside the intellectual sandbox built by the liberals. They are more interested in become the right wing of the liberal establishment than in questioning the presuppositions of the liberal establishment.
As much as I like Douthat I’m afraid he will settle into the role of NYT pet conservative pretty quickly.
...a concern for income inequality... "I'm sort of a squishy pro-lifer," ...He initially favored the war in Iraq, but later opposed it.IOW, he's not a conservative at all, because as we all know, conservatives are cognitively closed and never change their minds about anything. BTW, how much are they paying this clown? He sounds like he's one gender-reassignment from joining the cast of The View.
Something tells me not to get my hopes up.
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