This Bill Kristol tweet is pretty surprising. Not used to seeing any truth from him.

[NRaleighLiberal]

Link to tweet

[Iliyah]

1. And you helped

[Hortensis]

46. Absolutely, but... Kristol, unlike conservatives merely by personality, knew that an intellectual

basis for a conservative ideology had finally been developed to justify the gut reactions of conservatives. After all, he grew up knowing many of the creators from the mid 1900s, and its most important organizing principle was based on the value of proven ways and traditions and the importance of protecting them.

So Kristol of course understood what was happening when extremely wealthy ultraconservatives, for whom the proven ways were interfering with their accumulation of wealth and power, used universities and the new social media to destroy this fragile new ideology while taking over the Republican apparatus, and by providing conservatives by personality a new anti-regulation, anti-taxation "ideology": Short form, Democrat! Sic!

I lost all respect for Kristol as he tried to maintain his position by also serving up the Kool-Aid of the power-grabbers, but this has to have been a very bitter period for him. And I really do like this tweet. Whatever Kool-Aid he drank himself hasn't pickled his conservatism-constrained brain completely.

[marylandblue]

2. Not surprising, he has always been a never Trumper.

[LonePirate]

3. It's surprising he admitted it. Elected conservatives have only cared about money and power.

Corruption is merely a means to an end for them.

[Agschmid]

4. Ive met him twice, both times he was not at all what I expected.

I certainly don’t agree with him on much, but still I was impressed.

[Hortensis]

45. A "not-stupid?" :) For sure.

[First Speaker]

5. Kristol has been surprisingly clear about Trump from the start...

...and I think he deserves some credit for it. We need all the allies we can get, and I for one am not inclined to do an autopsy on their past histories, if they're willing to join the fight today.

[physioex]

7. Same with Krauthammer....EOM

[kcr]

9. Yes. So many other GOP "Never Trumpers" have turned out to be craven.

Despite his faults, when it comes to Trump, Kristol has not been that.

[Midnight Writer]

35. No "credit" at all from me. He's just another rat that knows the ship is sinking.

Kristol is for perpetual war and rule by the wealthy. In his political view, the rest of us are merely servants to the needs of the rich.

I am sick of these conservative architects (and yes, Kristol has had a vital role in defining "conservatism&quot acting appalled when the
movement they planted and cultivated yields predictably ugly fruit.

[SergeStorms]

36. Wasn't Kristol the one who....

said government should be "shrunk down to a size where it could be drowned in a bathtub" (or something to that effect)? Problem is, Trump and his demented minions took that literally. Look at what he's doing to Puerto Rico.

[Midnight Writer]

40. Grover Norquist. But cut from the same cloth. Dressing fascism in intellectual foppery.

[SergeStorms]

56. That's right!

It was Norquist. Like you say, cut from the same cloth. Thanks for the correction.

[lastlib]

62. PNAC. End of discussion on William "Wrong About Everything" Kristol.

Fuck him. With a chain-saw.

[SHRED]

6. Takes one to know one

[NRaleighLiberal]

8. good point

[SHRED]

10. He supported the corruption that...

...led to the illegal invasion of Iraq.

[SHRED]

11. My reply

Link to tweet

[NRaleighLiberal]

12. a perfect pitch!

[SHRED]

15. Thanks

That guy pisses me off.

[lindysalsagal]

44. THIS

Kristol is one of the original pnacers: The neocons who brought us the iraqi invasion to begin with. Him and Rice, Bolton, Wolfowitz, Cheney, and all the rest of the bush admin. Pirates.

I think Kristol turned coat on them when the invasion failed and colin powell made his mea culpa.

[KelleyKramer]

57. I've seen you do that before, just curious do they reply?

[SHRED]

58. Not famous people

Too many replies to answer.

[Leith]

13. Kristol Has Too Much to Answer for

He doesn't deserve any accolades for finally realizing the corruption inherent in his political philosophy. He deserves condemnation for his years of working hard for the destruction of our country and demonizing those who opposed him (that's us liberals).

He can crawl to hell on a trail of broken glass and toxic mold.

[Turbineguy]

14. When Bill Kristol is right....

Run like hell.

[jberryhill]

18. Scary

For many, many years, I could determine which things were not true, and which predictions are wildly unrealistic, by checking in with Bill Kristol who, in my observation, is the most reliable fount of wrong there has ever been.

Him saying anything I agree with, sense a chill up my spine out of fear that what I believe may be horribly incorrect.

[milestogo]

48. "the most reliable fount of wrong there has ever been"

[Liberal In Texas]

16. Kristol? He's like a broken clock.

You know twice a day. In his case once every few years.

Take him with a grain, or a pound, of salt.

[jberryhill]

20. He's a broken calendar

...for the planet Jupiter which has an orbit of some span of many years.

Or perhaps the Mayan calendar with its 10,000 year cycles.

[rpannier]

32. Kristol is a two faced clock

The one that is about il douche is correct 24 . The other face is always wrong

[LyndaG]

17. David Frum, too

[sharedvalues]

19. This is big for Kristol, he's saying the GOP is corrupt

Which is obviously true and has mostly been true since Limbaugh started and Murdoch bought the NY Post and used it to get Reagan elected.

But it's big for soemone like Kristol to embrace it.

Welcome to Team Good Guys, Bill. It's nice over here. A lot less hate.

[jberryhill]

22. His definition of "corrupt" is "I don't have a piece of the action"

He wants to get paid if he's going to join the team.

[sharedvalues]

24. No. He's saying the GOP is corrupt. That is unusual for any republican

He could get paid by GOP billionaires if he wanted to. He's actually taking a stand. We should celebrate republicans who do that.

[jberryhill]

26. Yes, and if he were on this gravy train, he wouldn't be saying that.

[sharedvalues]

55. We need to find common cause with those who see the light.

Kristol is an asshole. But now, and on this issue, he's our asshole. I'll be the first to throw him over when he says other things that are wrong. But he's right on this.

[Liberal In Texas]

27. He is not on our team,

and will never be.

[sharedvalues]

28. If he says the GOP is corrupt and they created Trump

I'm willing to support that.

(Yeah, maybe he's only on Team Good Guys for this issue, right now. But I'll take it.)

[FreepFryer]

21. He's not innocent, but he's not wrong. And he's no longer our most dangerous enemy.

If he is truly anti trump, as he has positioned himself, it will be nice to have the luxury of him as our most dire foe again.

[sharedvalues]

29. Note this tweet is anti-GOP, not just anti-Trump

That's the difference between really getting religion and morons like Bret Stephens.

David Frum and Kristol in this tweet are saying the rot is in the GOP, and the rotting GOP created Trump, when Trump said out loud the racist stuff the GOP only used to dogwhistle about. That's more than even Rick Wilson who can only bring himself to hate Breitbart, not Fox and Limbaugh and the mainstream GOP.

[BluesRunTheGame]

23. Wasn't Bill Kristol the one who talked McCain into selecting Sarah Palin?

Seems like the corruption started with Bill Kristol.

[brush]

25. What's gotten into him? I suspect the contrast between the "no drama Obama"...

corruption-free admin of 8 years and the corruption explosion in the 8 months of trumpistan has made him see the light.

Or not.

[sharedvalues]

30. I mean, anyone intellectually honest

knows that Trump is just the racist wing of the GOP taking over the billionaire wing of the GOP. And that Trump just said out loud what guys from Nixon to Reagan to Cruz have been dogwhistling about for four decades.

[Cosmocat]

42. Ive said/posted that MANY times

45 didn't happen TO the GOP.

He just is out and out saying the shit Rs have whistled at my entire life, decades now at least.

[sharedvalues]

54. Yup. Article from Miami Herald about this

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article168097357.html

Republicans have courted racists for years. Why are they cringing now?

[dalton99a]

31. Rubin has been saying the same thing about the GOP

[TeamPooka]

33. And he helped bring conservatism to that point. Nice of him to wash his hands now. nt

[Rhiannon12866]

34. He's been on quite a few (mostly MSNBC) shows for awhile criticizing Trump

It's amazing how many of those we vehemently opposed are now saying the same things we say about Trump.

[OnDoutside]

37. True, but none of them including Steve Schmidt etc talk about

where the GOP may have to go, to delouse itself... something that may mean the end of the Republican Party, and a split into a more moderate new party which attracts 70% of its current support, with the rest hived off into a US Monster Raving Looney party. There is no reeducation for many of that rump.

[Rhiannon12866]

39. You're right, I know what you mean

Those like Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace, the less extreme Republicans, are seeing a real split with the Trump followers. The difference that I see is the difference between those who actually know what's going on and are paying attention and those who blindly follow Trump no matter what insane rantings and lies he manages to come up with. It would be interesting to watch if Trump wasn't pulling the entire country down with him.

[Vogon_Glory]

47. Seventy percent? That many sane Republicans left?

Maybe it's because I live in Texas, but after the rise of the Tea Party and the failure of what I thought of as the wiser, responsible, competent part of the Republican Party to brake the craziness, I'd be surprised if the sane part of the Republican Party touches sixty percent.

[phleshdef]

38. Kristol has been like this toward Trump since day 1.

He is an asshole but he isn't stupid.

[Mike Nelson]

41. Kristol...

...could, if he wants, start blowing some big whistles. He should write a book exposing some of his Republican pals. It's nice to have him on our payroll, I guess, but I think Nicolle Wallace and Steve Schmidt are more honorable.

[Saboburns]

43. I followed him for past year on Twitter

He and David Frum, another Republican, are my 2 favorite twitterers. Take 10 min and look over their tweets.

The eviscerate Trump, his Cabinet, the Republican Congress folk, and the Republican Party.

[titaniumsalute]

49. I may disagree with Kristols politics

But he's been spot on about Trump from day one and I applaud him for that 100%.

[Baitball Blogger]

50. Yikes!

Sounds like he knows that ship is goin down! Someone throw Kristol a life line.

[Duppers]

51. NeoCons started this.

Kristol, you're guilty.

[BainsBane]

53. The neoconservative ideology is different from

the part of the party that seeks to appeal to the racism of the base. Other than being Republicans, they don't have much in common.

I don't see how you can claim the neocons started this. Trump isn't a neocon. He's a white nationalist.

[BainsBane]

52. He's been critical of Trump from the beginning

and more so as Trump has been in office and showed just how deplorable he is.

[malaise]

59. Says one of the leading enablers

[Efilroft Sul]

60. Bill Kristol's second sentence is approximately 49 years late.

[Orsino]

61. Conservatism IS corruption.

You can't advocate for the concentration of wealth in a few hands and not expect for that power to be misused against the many, or for the story of that misuse to be buried. Corruption.