A Pattern Emerges

Last year, Jonah Goldberg wrote, “Here’s a short rule of thumb for how to tell who is a ‘respectable’ conservative in the eyes of liberals: any conservative out of power or not seen as supportive of those in power”:

An even shorter rule of thumb would be: conservatives are respectable if they are useful to liberals. Pat Buchanan became respectable, even adorable, among a loose coalition of liberals leftists, from MSNBC’s Chris Matthews to Ralph Nader, when he turned on the GOP establishment. Kevin Phillips, David Gergen and John Dean have been “real” Republicans