Inkless Wells

Paul Wells on all the latest out of Ottawa—along with the occasional post about jazz. Follow Paul on Twitter: @InklessPW

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The right choice (greeted by the obvious pun)

by Paul Wells on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 5:02pm - 17 Comments

The New York Times has picked Ross Douthat to replace Bill Kristol, who sucked, as the paper’s real conservative columnist (as opposed to David Brooks, who votes Republican but often feels bad about it). Douthat and I have mutual friends, which led to brunch in Ottawa a few months ago; he struck me as soft-spoken, pensive, fearsomely intelligent, modest and diligent. But then you can get much the same impression from reading him, so mostly the added value from our brunch was some yummy crepes. He was on everyone’s list when it became clear Kristol would need replacing. He’ll do well.

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Paul Wells

Maybe not that much of a real conservative. The Times makes him sound like one of the gang:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/business/media/12douthat.html?_r=1&hp

James Connors

Being from ‘The Atlantic,’ in my view, signals promise. Kristol will not be missed; much like Levant after the demise.

Who were you hoping for? A George Will/Robert Novak clone?

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Summary: In separate columns, George Will and Robert Novak misrepresented the facts and omitted key evidence — embraced by the vast majority of climate scientists — demonstrating that global warming is occurring and that human activity is contributing to the problem.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200604070009
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Paul Wells

George Will clone would be excellent. Will was 31 when the Washington Post hired him. I’m very pleased with the choice of Douthat, not that anyone concerned needs my blessing.

James Connors

In the far distant past I found Will amusing but, like cheap wine, he doesn’t seem to have been improved by aging.

William F. Buckley, there was a conservative. In my inner ear I hear his voice and this thought comes to mind; to err is human; to forgive is simply not our policy.

HIs Blackford Oakes novels I found puzzling; from my reading they were juvenile and liberal leaning. As if the whole right-wing-nut thing that defined Buckley was merely a huge jest he played upon the world

Kaplan

Almost anyone could have filled Will “I’ve Been Wrong About Everything (And I Mean Everything)” Kristol’s slot, but I’m glad they picked up Douthat.

Now, if they can swap Maureen Dowd for Andrew Sullivan, the NY Times would be in fine shape!

nd

I’ve been reading Douthat in the Atlantic for a while, and his blog is one of my daily reads. I’m not sure what you mean by “real conservative” though – he’s certainly not the megaphone for Republican orthodoxy that Kristol was. In fact, at the risk of resurrecting obsolete political categories, I’m gonna say he always struck me as somewhat of a “Progressive Conservative”, which is probably why I find him so appealing.

But yes – intelligent, moderate, thoughtful – in short, everything that today’s Republican party is not.
Kaplan

You haven’t read much of Douthat if you think he’s not a real conservative…or did you miss his endless moralizing on abortion and stem cells, not to mention his love of Sarah Palin and a rather disturbing tendency to label liberals as apologists of terrorism?

http://carnewsandviews.com jwl

I wonder why NY Times always seem to prefer squishy cons to red meat cons. Ross, get ready for endless criticism from latte liberals who always seem to prefer con writers from the past who are either retired or dead so they can claim to have read/liked cons but not the current one. Congrats to Douthat.

http://myblahg.com Robert McClelland

Red meat cons are all psychopaths that lack even an ounce of journalistic integrity. See the National Disgrace for evidence of that.
Jameso

Who would you like to see,? How many ‘red meat’, articulate conservatives are there who would take well to the task of writing to an audience largely inclined to disagree? Especially at a time when there’s real fallout amongst Republicans as to who’s been loyal enough etc- Frum being the most recent target.
While it’s a good soapbox, there’s some difficulty in making that dynamic work without pissing off either your readers or your fellow-travellers, as it were. A lot of people seem to like Kristol in general, but he failed badly at this one.
archangel

They’re dead meat now — simply offal.

RB

Douthat is a great choice. I was sort of hoping he’d take over the back ten pages of First Things now that Neuhaus has passed on, but the New York Times has about a zillion times the readership, so it’s probably best.
Wascally Wabbit

I watched Will trying to backstop Rove on the George Stephanopoulos This Week show Sunday before last.
The Editor of the Nation – plus one other Liberal whose name escapes – were making mincemeat of Rove – and Will wasn’t able to help him in any way…
I read a lack of heart in the project….
phil

Paul

The “soft-spoken, pensive, fearsomely intelligent, modest and diligent” columnist begins his Mar 10 blog with “the Obama Administration’s inevitable decision to get the government into the business of embryo-killing.”

Can we add a few more adjectives? I’m considering “hyperbolic, misleading, disingenuous”, but you’d be much better at this.
http://economics.about.com Mike Moffatt

Darn.. passed over for promotion *again*.

You’d think spending the last 6 months disagreeing with Krugman would count for *something*.
http://www.iheartmusic.net matthew

Not a bad choice…I think he’s a bit absurd at times (his column a few months ago on why watching pornography was equivalent to committing adultery was pretty stupid, to put it bluntly), but as others have said, at least he’s not a GOP mouthpiece. That said, I think they should’ve gone out on a limb and hired Rod Dreher. I don’t agree with him on anything, really, but he’s one of those rare conservative pundits who no one could ever accuse of being intellectually dishonest. Plus he’s a pretty great writer.
http://paretascene.blogspot.com/ C. Ellis

Agreed that the porn piece was a bit of a stretch, but at least he’s an intelligent Conservative (albeit a “squishy” one – that much was obvious from the crepes…they’re French you know).