Kristol merely yearns for some Dubya-style decisioner-decider action. Like what got us into Iraq, cheered on by William the Bloody.

That nincompoops such as Kristol inhabit such lofty positions in our national discourse as a member of the Very Serious People ™, and with such a wide audience, is emblematic of all that is wrong with our Fourth Estate.

Well I got another question or two for Bill. What does he know about "real men?" What he makes at least a million a year. Lives in NYC. Attends dinner parties weekly none of us could get within a few blocks of.

I wonder when was the last time he did an "honest" days work. Heck I wonder when was the last time he mowed his own lawn. Snaked out a backed up toilet in his house. Even got on his roof to clean his gutters.

The only way this dude would know a "real man" (or women for that matter) was if one of them "kicked his ass" for saying stupid shit.

LOL - everyone knows "real men" don't need baseball bats to kick ass.

But Steve "real men", like Shrub, use their gut feeling to guide the way and make decisions for them. See how well that worked?

He is the poster child for what's wrong with this country's media and pundit class.
Nepotism. He got to where he is because he's his fathers son. I may have disagreed with his Daddy a lot, but he wasn't a total nincompoop like his son. You listening, Luke?
Entitlement. He get jobs becuase of his name. He goes to the most tony parties, appears on gasbag shows, and pulls in tons of wingnut welfare. No one else on the planet would hire this fucking imbecile, except rich, corrupt conservatives.
Incompetence. My favorite moment on TV recently, was a couple of years ago, when Bloody Bill appeared with Jon Stewart, who asked him, "Have you EVER been right? About ANYTHING?"
Self-rightiousness. 'Nuff said...

This guy has never been right about anything. It's an amazing track record. Simply amazing! I mean, even a poor blind squirrel finds an acorn every once in awhile.

"There's so much stupid in this sentence you could freebase it."

You have made my day! I have just linked this to my fifty first best friends. If that doesn't describe Kristol I don't know what does...he is the MAN that picked Sarah Palin for Johnny (we hardly know ye) McCain...and THAT should tell you everything...

Of course, Cheney and his sidekick, George the lesser, are probably the two Obama should kick hardest for sabotaging deregulation of off shore drilling.

I wonder when was the last time he did an "honest" days work. Heck I wonder when was the last time he mowed his own lawn. Snaked out a backed up toilet in his house. Even got on his roof to clean his gutters.

Posted by: Tommy

i was wondering if he takes out his own garbage. then i thought, of course he does. that's where his columns come from.

I don't understand. You think George W. Bush wandering around the world like a baby with a hammer was a bad thing?

"real men" should just "kick ass,"

Hence, the war in Iraq, a country that didn't attack us and didn't have WMD.

That's working out so well, isn't it? Thanks, Bill.

A while ago, during the Bushit regime, a writer said this about "W":

"this guy was born on third base and thought he hit a triple"

Kristol is pretty much the same. Proximal bravado due to birth status.

Nauseating on so, so many levels...

---
Real men don't need experts to tell them whose asses to kick.
---

You mean like Bush invading Iraq?

He should be a real man like Kristol, who doesn't even allow comments on his POS scribbling at the Standard.

Projecting much, you loser?

What does William Irvingson Kristol know about being a real man?

It's breathtaking that men like Kristol were the agenda setters of America's foreign and domestic policy for 8 years.

I don't know if that's more of an indictment of Kristol and his conservative brethen or the American electorate at-large.

I am a real man, and little Billy Kristol better hope we don't run into each other.

Obama should not have said "so I know whose ass to kick."

He should have said "so I know whose ass needs to be indicted, prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned".

"this guy was born on third base and thought he hit a triple"

Actually Jim Hightower said this about Daddy Bush back in 1988...perhaps it could be rephrased for Shrub "this guy was born on home plate and thought he hit a homerun"

@ stevio...
you're right. it's a great quote.
but it was said by ann richards at the '88 dem convention about w's daddy, george h.w.
applies to shub as well, tho.

Kristol knows whose but to kick...Iran! I'm sure he can use his "logic" in some convoluted way to make them responsible, and then...war!

good grief ... the last person to even have a clue about what qualifies for 'real men' is little billie kristol.

The Republican Party: kicking asses without the benefit of expert guidance, and thereby wrecking the country, since 1980.

Bill needs to return to "The Daily Show" so Jon can "kick his ass" yet again.

Pretty funny, Kristol talking about "real men."

When he tells us what a prissy, pudgy little limp-wristed girlie boy would do, I'll listen.

Actually, Ann Richards' best quote about George H.W. at the '88 Democratic Convention was "Poor George. He can't help it - he was born with a silver foot in his mouth."

That applies equally -- perhaps more so -- to slimy little nepotism cases like Bill Kristol. Really, Maalox just isn't strong enough when reading about some of these people.

Okay - I had to get to the root of the "born on third base" quote although it was Hightower who said it at the Demo convention in 1988 it should be credited to Barry Switzer, the legendary head football coach at the University of Oklahoma, was quoted in the Chicago Tribune in 1986 as saying, "Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple."

Fuckin' Idiot Party.

Oh my, this is even more interesting considering who it is about...

Time magazine's Susan Fraker, who wrote this in the May 30, 1983, issue about Superior Oil head honcho Howard Keck: "People who know him say that he can be vindictive and that he often acts capriciously. And like many very rich people, he is not accustomed to anyone disagreeing with him. The trouble with Howard, an acquaintance says, is that 'he was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple.'"

(sorry, I kind of over did the work on this one particular quote!)

Kristol is a pu$$y. There I said it. You know you were thinking it.

Kristol has the instincts of a courtier-- his statement makes sense in the context of a weak-willed President who takes flattery seriously. "You make decisions with your guts," says Bill, "you're a real man." The message to the various Republican political wannabes is "Hire me, and I'll make you feel good about yourself, no matter what."

I'll bet that worked with George-- and that was great for Bill, although so good for the country.

Even more infuriating is thinking about all the unemployed people out there who have skills, talent, brains and something to actually offer the world, and this douchebag gets paid six figures a year.

"Real men don't need experts to tell them whose asses to kick."

Damn staight. You just need a really cool pair of sunglasses, and you can see who needs the ass kicking.

However, real men might need those experts to take names. That usually requires a lot of book learnin'.

You know whose ass needs to be thoroughly kicked? Bill Kristol's. That smarmy bastard.

You're all missing the essential brilliance of Mr. Benen's post: the title is a Simpson's reference.

And it works on multiple levels, since Krusty the Clown is Jewish.

William Kristol reminds me of those sycophantic 98-lb kids who hang around with the jocks in the hopes that they won't get their own asses kicked...or have their own manhood questioned.

It's called Butch Assurance.

You're all missing the essential brilliance of Mr. Benen's post: the title is a Simpson's reference.

It's a bit unfair to Krusty, though, as Krusty is a.) funny and b.) is actually a decent guy ("I'm gonna take you kids to the happiest place on earth...Tijuana!!!").

Bill Kristol fails, utterly, on both counts.

Obama used the a-word once; Benen uses he-who-we-do-not-name-but-begins-with-a-K-and-is-a-synonym-for-the-a-word 5 times.

And to think that I nominated the guy for Helen Thomas's front-row chair! Oh, the humanity!!!

I believe that every ten years or so, the President of the United States should take one of the world's biggest oil conglomerates, and throw it up against the wall, just to show everyone we mean business.

Kristol isn't dumb. His comment is meta - talking about all the talk. Which is all the gossipy media is for. Would he really say, "real men don't need experts to tell them whose asses to kick" with a straight face?

He's a lying neocon ass$%#@, but he's got an IQ higher than 90. I'd put him around 135. Smart, not a genius. Still a lying neocon dirtbag schmuck though.

Interesting, and very unintellectual statement coming from one of the ultimate elitist pansy-asses.

Interesting that criticism of Obama's statement don't include Laurer's insult, to which the statement was a response.

Bill Kristol, once again, proves he's dickless.

Can someone please arrange to have the shit kicked out of this punk, just once?
How tough can the penalties for assault-with-intent-to-improve-behavior be? And surely we can find somebody willing to risk that, esp since it seems plausible that a jury might deem it "justifiable"? The smarmy little rodent's smug facial expression alone could arguably be presented as the visual equivalent of "fighting words."

What I recall about Kristol's bout with Stewart on TDS was Stewart calling him out on his bullshit and Kristol's amused, secure smile. He seems to know he can say anything and get away with it. He's so inside, so connected that he could confess to murder and walk--a pissy version of Noah Cross in "Chinatown".
That explains his presence on TV. Why anyone even close to power would take a syllable of his advice is another question.

Kick ass first, ask questions later. That's normal policy for the right. Remember why we're in Iraq? It's payback for 9/11. Never mind asking the experts who to kick.

I have no idea