Good Riddance, Bill Kristol • Now, Fire Rush Limbaugh

Bill Kristol is an embarassment to the Times, now thankfully coming to an end with the announcement today that his current column will be the last. His columns were consistently facile, incoherent, and ridiculously ideological. The decision to dump him, whatever its rationale may have been, must be welcomed by anyone who values intellectual standards, including ordinary coherence and organization of thought, regardless of their politics.

Turning to another incoherent and fatuous right-winger, I rarely comment on Rush Limbaugh, because he is so ridiculous that it's not worth the breath. But his raving that he wants President Obama to fail, criticized even by the likes of Bill Bennett, is so out and out evil that somebody in La-la Conservative Land needs to point out that by their own lights, this kind of comment is downright unpatriotic. It amounts to wishing our country ill. We have a First Amendment: such comments are legal, but that doesn't mean they aren't despicable.

I would love to see a groundswell of protest, demanding that this guy be fired.