The Return Of The Man Who Hates Nepotism
Bill Kristol really despises people whose relatives gave them a leg-up in the world
Bill really despises people whose relatives gave them a leg-up in the world.
Really, really despises them:
Except, y'know, if those people are related to Bill Kristol:
Irving Kristol’s Son Now Opposed to Nepotism
By Jonathan ChaitFrom his humble origins as the son of prestigious neoconservative intellectual Irving Kristol, Bill Kristol has risen to a career as a semi-prestigious neoconservative pseudo-intellectual. This inspiring and quintessentially American story has inculcated in the younger Kristol many of his characteristic traits, including a belief in merit, rabid partisanship, and a comic lack of self-awareness...
And of course, in Bill Kristol's world the Obvious Merit Hires (h/t Brother Pierce) never fall very far from the tree:
Matthew Joseph Continetti[1] (born June 24, 1981) is an American conservative journalist and editor-in-chief of The Washington Free Beacon.[2]
...
He lives in Arlington, Virginia.[6] He is married to Anne Elizabeth Kristol, the daughter of neo-conservative writer William Kristol.[11]
However, I must disagree with Mr. Chait's October, 2014 article on one particular. Bill Kristol does not suffer from a "comic lack of self-awareness". It is simply the case that, like so maky of his fellow collaborators, Mr. Kristol operates within a world where obviously liars, hacks and the criminally insane are not only never brought to book for their behavior, but are routinely rewarded with wealth and power. Some members of this fraternity -- like, say, Mr. Kristol's former employee, David Brooks -- are very touchy about their long history of hackery and dependent on a fragile facade of respectability, and so they actively avoid any venue where anyone might take a verbal poke at them.
Mr. Kristol, on the other hand, clearly relishes being evil and cheerful embraces all the perks that come with being a smirking, blood-drunk monster -- including hypocrisy -- as his birthright.
(Crossposted from driftglass' blog)