Bill Kristol is 'out of his gourd'

The last of those rational belt-way types who still held on to the belief that Bill Kristol was not a kook, should have jumped ship on Sunday after having read his now infamous WaPo op/ed entitled Why Bush Will Be a Winner.

Today, David Corn, writing in the same paper responds with Why Bush Is A Loser.

Corn naturally assumes that Kristol was being satirical. "Surely Kristol, the No. 1 cheerleader for the Iraq war, was mocking himself (and his neoconservative pals) for having been so mistaken about so much." Corn then reminds us of how well Kristol has done on past predictions,

On Sept. 18, 2002, he declared that a war in Iraq "could have terrifically good effects throughout the Middle East." A day later, he said Saddam Hussein was "past the finish line" in developing nuclear weapons. On Feb. 20, 2003, he said of Saddam: "He's got weapons of mass destruction.... Look, if we free the people of Iraq we will be respected in the Arab world." On March 1, 2003 -- 18 days before the invasion of Iraq -- Kristol dismissed the possibility of sectarian conflict afterward. He also said, "Very few wars in American history were prepared better or more thoroughly than this one by this president." He maintained that the war would cost $100 billion to $200 billion. (The running tab is now about half a trillion dollars.) On March 5, 2003, Kristol said, "We'll be vindicated when we discover the weapons of mass destruction."

After suggesting that Kristol's license as a pundit should be revoked, he then goes on to respond, point by point, to Bill's delusional assertions.

Bill Kristol is a likable guy on TV and comes off as so reasonable in his tone and presentation. It's only when you listen to what he is actually saying that it becomes clear that he is a lunatic.

I do seriously wonder at what point, you stop inviting a guy like Kristol on your news show.