Kristol is a great guy IMHO, but he’s sleeping with the enemy here.
Kristol is and always has been a McCain supporter and apologist. And as we know McCain is not that popular in conservative circles (except maybe his support of the Iraq war) so Kristol can't be considered a true conservative as Safire was. But the Slimes will do what it can to present him that way so as to appear "balanced."
So by your logic, the NYT should not have any conservative writers on their opinion page?
Bottom line is 30% the country which are conservative, wouldn't use the NYT's to train their puppies on, actually might log on to the web site to read Kristol. The mighty dollar speaks even to a left wing socialist rag
Anyway, it's not like Kristol is a Reagan conservative antway. He's a shill for McCain