Eric Boehlert: Kristol and Brooks play dumb at The New York Times

[babylonsister]

Kristol and Brooks play dumb at The New York Times
New York Times
by Eric Boehlert | October 16, 2008


Back in June, at a time when he felt Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign was stuck in neutral, National Review editor Rich Lowry suggested that a quick-fix for the Republican candidate would be for conservative thinker and New York Times columnist Bill Kristol to take a temporary leave from the paper and officially join the McCain team.

"Why the McCain Campaign Needs Bill Kristol," read the headline to Lowry's piece.

The temporary leave never happened; Kristol has remained at the paper throughout the campaign. But looking back, perhaps Lowry was being too logical in suggesting Kristol hit the pause button on the Times while he became intimately involved advising the GOP candidate. Because it appears Kristol may have benefited from the best of both worlds by keeping his high-profile Times gig while also helping steer the McCain team.

Of course, that kind of free-lance work would violate the Times' logical policy, which forbids journalists from advising politicians, even informally. (Columnists are supposed to comment on campaigns, not be part of them.) And previously, Kristol and the Times have both insisted the columnist has absolutely no hand in McCain's run.

But a recent report, which raises doubts about those denials, suggests Kristol was instrumental in lobbying for the McCain team to pick Sarah Palin as the GOP's vice-presidential candidate. That would explain Kristol's steadfast support of Palin in the face of so many conservative pundits expressing doubts about her.

One of those GOP-friendly pundits who recently tagged Palin as unqualified was Kristol's conservative colleague at the Times, columnist David Brooks. The twist however, was that Brooks did not broadcast his harshest Palin misgivings in his column. Instead, he expressed them during an exclusive media luncheon in New York City, just 72 hours after toasting Palin in the Times.

While journalists and luminaries dined at the elegant Le Cirque restaurant, Brooks, being interviewed onstage, announced Palin represented a "cancer" on the Republican Party and that she was "not even close" to being qualified for the office she's seeking.

Talk about burying the lead.

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