Bill Kristol Terrorizes the Lefties With His New York Times Gig

Conservative Bill Kristol was recently released from writing for Time Magazine and the lefties rejoiced...until he was hired to do a weekly op-ed for the New York Times. Since the Times is the house organ for the most strident lefties, this has caused them great distress:

The New York Times’ hiring of Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol to write for its op-ed page caused a frenzy in the liberal blogosphere Friday night, with threats of canceling subscriptions and claims that the Gray Lady had been hijacked by neo-cons

But Times editorial page editor Andy Rosenthal sees things differently.

Rosenthal told Politico shortly after the official announcement Saturday that he fails to understand “this weird fear of opposing views.”

“The idea that The New York Times is giving voice to a guy who is a serious, respected conservative intellectual — and somehow that’s a bad thing,” Rosenthal added. “How intolerant is that?”

Kristol, whose strident support of President Bush and the war in Iraq remains a source of consternation among liberals, took pride in the reaction on the Huffington Post, where the news first broke.

“I was flattered watching blogosphere heads explode,” Kristol told Politico. “It was kind of amusing.”

The reaction sort of reminds me of what happened when the Los Angeles Times fired Robert Sheer, a guy who was so far left he was laughable, and replaced him with conservative Jonah Goldberg. Barbara Streisand wrote a nasty letter to the paper cancelling her subscription over that one (you can read the story here).

The left doesn't just think that conservatives are wrong, but they're dangerous too. And yes, we are a danger to the ideas they hold near and dear. Being exposed to the conservative point of view might actually cause them to think as opposed to the emotional reaction they seem to favor. A little weekly dose of Kristol will do them good.