Bill Kristol is One Sick Puppy

[Wetzelbill]

Bill Kristol is One Sick Puppy
by John Seery

Last night Bill Kristol appeared on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. (You can view it here.) Finally--since Kristol always cowers behind a desk while smirking and commenting for Fox News--a television audience could catch a revealing glimpse into Kristol's stand-up stature: the 5'7" Stewart clearly lorded over Kristol by a couple of inches. Once again Kristol's jokey yet zealously creepy endorsements for war (invading Iran, he off-handedly averred, wouldn't be a "bad idea") would naturally prompt most inquisitive viewers to speculate ad hominem about this strange excuse for a human being: How could someone love war so much? Kristol characteristically espouses war not just as a regrettably necessary matter of self-defense and national security, a killing option of the last resort, but rather as his frequently preferred strategic policy tool. Armchair analysts would surely submit that Kristol's emotionally damaged psyche indicates arrested Oedipalism combined with Napoleonic little-man complexities fostered along intellectually by crypto-Straussian homoerotic male-bonding rituals for compensatory manliness. Myself, I just can't fathom what might fully explain his singular brand of chickenhawk weirdness. All I can say is that last night he once again earned his self-appointed title as our National Neo-con Coxswain for war (or War Cox, for short).

Last night's appearance was curious because it was clearly part of a coordinated PR strategy for extending our entrenched presence in Iraq well beyond Gen. Petraeus's September report card. Kristol, back from his own eight day "tour" of Iraq, assured us that the surge is going well, that morale is "high" among the troops because the plan is "succeeding." "No one doubts," he claimed, that "things are getting better" in Iraq, and even war "skeptics" such as O'Hanlon and Pollack have been won over (Stewart rightly resisted that Pollack was ever a war critic). Anyway, the full court pre-Petraeus press is on. That the Weekly Standard editor would choose a Comedy Central venue is telling. My question is, did Kristol contact the Daily Show to request this appearance, or did the Daily Show folks contact Kristol so that he could freely spew his fresh-from-Baghdad observations? My guess is the former. Either way, why give this discredited bozo any more airtime? His appearances are neither funny nor entertaining nor informative. His track record for strategic recommendations has been, again and again and again, monstrously wrong and utterly disastrous. And now he wants to charm himself back into national rehabilitation? In granting him some valuable pre-September face time, the Daily Show has become complicit in broadcasting Kristol's rationalizations, insinuations, and provocations for continuing our occupation in Iraq. Jon Stewart could have at least called him some nasty names, but deferred. Some persons at this juncture in our country's history, however, no longer deserve politely bemused civility, and certainly not serious respect.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-seery/bill-kristol-is-one-sick-_b_60434.html

[opihimoimoi]

1. HTH can anyone take this excuse of a Human seriously in the first place is beyond my imagination

[graywarrior]

2. Whenever he appears on the Daily Show, I cannot watch it.

I don't get why he is a frequent guest...along with McCain.

[Wetzelbill]

3. McCain never met a camera he didn't like

he'll go on anything, and plus, he's good press for TDS, because the rest of the media has always loved the guy. Kristol, I'm not sure why. Maybe Stewart just likes giving him hell, or something.

[jtrockville]

7. I can't watch Kristol either. He's a boob.

Maybe it's funny the first time, but once is enough. He has zero credibility. Giving him air just enables him.

[zabet]

8. Hey now!!

Don't disrespect the boobs in America like that!

[Wetzelbill]

12. boobs serve a purpose

:patriot:

[question everything]

15. Both Stewart and Maher want to have a variety of opinion

so as not to appear as "Fox-left."

I think that they actively court RWers to appear. Makes it more interesting, I suppose.

What is interesting, though, is how the RWers trip on each other to appear on the Daily Show, at least, especially when they promote a book.

And, since the interview last around 5 minutes they figure they can survive.

And, let's face it, Stewart is a terrible interviewer. Like Matthews he likes to hear himself. He asks a question and then explains the question, and interrupts the answers and too often I am disappointed in these interviews.

[liberal N proud]

4. I wonder sometimes why Stewart brings him on the show

He laughs in Kristol's face several times when he is on the show, but that can't be Stewart's motive. Can it?

[madrchsod]

5. he brings on billy boy so no one can say

he does`t present the "other side". he finds the most intelligent right wing pundit and everyone is happy. it would be interesting to see if the ratings drop when billy boy is on. big mac is/was an entertaining interview and that`s why he is on..although lately he`s lost his edge because of his running for president

[riona]

6. Watching those two is hugely entertaining.-

Like a sitcom, it's predictable, but you go along for the laughs.

[Wetzelbill]

9. kick

[yodermon]

10. Yep. He signed his fucking name to the following fucking statment:

And advanced forms of biological warfare that can “target” specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool.

(http://cryptome.org/rad.htm , "Rebuilding America's Defenses", PNAC)

:wtf: :wtf: :wtf:

He's a fucking fuck.

[Laurab]

11. Kristol was/is disgusting

How Jon can even talk to the guy is beyond me. McCain should be interesting - ever since he went over to the "dark side", as Jon calls it, he and Jon haven't been exactly buddy-buddy. In fact, if I remember correctly, they were going to have an arm wrestling match last time.

Jon DOES make them look like the idiots they are, though, while somehow still being nice.

[Gregorian]

13. I disagree with this assessment. Kristol is the single most important guest they could have.

Now if we could simply put a muzzle on the neocons, I would agree. But there is a First Amendment. And by using it to lie, people die.

But, I had this conversation over the weekend. The Daily Show has changed minds. And young minds at that. Kristol can either blast his lies in newspapers or other tv shows, with no resistance or confrontation. But on The Daily Show he got just that. And in front of the people who will be our next generation of voters. He said what he was going to say, but he didn't do it unopposed. Jon Stewart is understood, trusted, and a roll model for those watching. They knew what was going on. And now they know who Kristol is and what he stands for.

This is the power of the Daily Show. I cursed the conservative guests until I realized this.

[Kurovski]

14. Agreed.

K&R. We need to build a neo-con nuthouse for the care of these psychos.

Someplace special, not your run-of-the-mill prison for the criminally insane.