Via James Taranto, I had the pleasure of reading the “belle-lettristic” Katha Pollitt on William Kristol:
What ever happened to meritocracy? For Kristol to get a Times column–after being fired from Time magazine no less–is as meritocratic as, um, George W. Bush becoming the leader of the free world. A pundit, even a highly ideological one like Kristol, has to be (or seem) right at least some of the time. But what’s striking about Kristol is that he’s has been wrong about everything! . . . And it’s not as if he’s a great prose stylist, either. At least David Brooks can occasionally turn a phrase. Kristol just churns out whatever the argument of the moment happens to be, adds jeers, and knocks off for lunch.
Ohmygod – fired by Time Magazine and then hired by The New York Times… Meritocracy problem indeed! But if Ms. Pollitt is concerned with the NYT, she might be even more distressed spending a bit of time in yet-more-liberal Hollywood where seven-figure screenwriters are fired on a daily basis. And some of them even have Academy Awards. What is the world coming to?
(Pot to kettle, Ms. Pollitt is no S. J. Perelman herself when it comes to turning a phrase, but she does put me on The Road to Miltown.)
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