CONSERVING CONSERVATISM MOST CONSERVATIVELY: ‘Cue the Calliope Music’: Bill Kristol Explains Why He Supports Democrats, and Twitter Has Thoughts.

I came to D.C. to work in the Reagan Administration because (to oversimplify) it was pro-Constitution, pro-U.S. global leadership, pro-military, pro-Israel, pro-democratic capitalism, and pro-American dream. And that's why I now support the Biden Administration and Democrats.

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) October 17, 2023

Flashback: Why do NeverTrumpers think they can run the Democratic party?

MARK JUDGE: The Lost Bardo of Bill Kristol. “Imagine how different Kristol’s life could have been had he pivoted away from politics when the Standard ceased publication in 2018. Like fellow conservative William F. Buckley, he could have done some traveling. Or scuba-diving. Or something . . . anything. The Buddhists have a concept called a ‘bardo’ which means a death and a rebirth. People can experience several bardos in life—such as when you have your first heartbreak, or when you lose a parent, or when you endure a tough illness. All such milestones call for some big change in perspective.”

WHAT’S HILARIOUS IS, HE THINKS THIS IS A POSITIVE: Bill Kristol: Nancy Pelosi legacy will be Jan. 6 investigation, adding Liz Cheney.

CONSERVING CONSERVATISM MOST CONSERVATIVELY: Democrat Bill Kristol Shows His Financial Support For Ohio Democrat Tim Ryan.

I’M SO OLD, I CAN REMEMBER WHEN BILL KRISTOL WAS STILL CONSERVATIVE: Big Government Advocate Bill Kristol Calls For Tax Hikes on The Rich.

MOCKING BILL KRISTOL IS LIKE SHOOTING FISH IN A BARREL. WHICH IS TO SAY, FUN.

DeSantis fought in a war that you wanted. A war that you didn’t have to fight.

You should sit this one out. https://t.co/VwYb0S8SNJ pic.twitter.com/Teq2g8E1hS

— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) February 25, 2022

Also, shut up, Bill, you sorry little prick.

AHOY! Terry McAuliffe touts the endorsement of Bill Kristol, the ‘leading conservative in America.’

Flashback: Bill Kristol and the political defector grift. Since the days of Richard Nixon, you can make a very good living in the DNC-MSM media bubble by being a prominent Republican who never votes for Republicans.

Also McAuliffe last night: “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” Well, that should lock-up the all-important Comcast demographic in Virginia:

AHOY! Bill Kristol: People in My Circle Who Voted for Biden Don’t Expect to Support Him Again.

Flashback: Bill Kristol declares Joe Biden ‘the simple answer’ for beating Trump.

Given Biden’s rapidly declining faculties, that was quite a Freudian slip from Kristol.

Related: Bill Kristol and the political defector grift. Since the days of Richard Nixon, you can make a very good living in the DNC-MSM media bubble by being a prominent Republican who never votes for Republicans.

EVERGREEN QUESTION: What the Hell Happened to Bill Kristol?

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): I think that Hayward is too charitable to Kristol here. Maybe he’s right, but a more parsimonious explanation is that Kristol was always a grifter, and he’s just found a new grift. It’s like why famous actors and athletes wind up hawking reverse mortgages and medicare supplements at the end of their careers — whatever they did before, that’s the thing they can do at this stage that makes the most money.

I’M SO OLD, I CAN REMEMBER WHEN BILL KRISTOL WAS STILL A CONSERVATIVE:

BILL KRISTOL is just pathetic now.

BECAUSE OF COURSE HE DID: Never Trumper Bill Kristol Posts Ghoulish Fantasy of Pelosi Becoming President This Year, It Does Not Go Well.

At this point maybe we should retire “NeverTrump” and replace it with something like “Formerly Closeted Democrat Who Wishes to Be Thought of as a Moderate But No One Is Buying It.”

It’s a little wordy, isn’t it?

AS BERNIE SANDERS CRUSHES NEVADA, NEVERTRUMPER BILL KRISTOL SEEMS TO HAVE BUYER’S REMORSE:

Earlier: Why do NeverTrumpers think they can run the Democratic party?

BILL OF FOR SALE: Based On Tax Filings, Bill Kristol’s Been A Democrat For Years. “Bill Kristol, currently editor-at-large of The Bulwark, has been funded from the start of his rebellion by big left-of-center donors like Pierre Omidyar and the Hewlett Foundation.”

BILL FINALLY MAKES IT OFFICIAL: Bill Kristol says ‘we are all Democrats now’ (and people have thoughts).

FACE, MEET PALM: Bill Kristol: Trump Is a Bigger Threat to Free Markets Than Warren.

But other than taxing innovators and entrepreneurs out of existence, how do you enjoy your capitalism, Mrs. Warren?

YOU WENT FULL BILL KRISTOL. NEVER GO FULL BILL KRISTOL: Is Jennifer Rubin Trying to Out “Bill Kristol” Bill Kristol? 

Earlier: Double Whammy: CBS Journo Jan Crawford Shuts Down Hillary Clinton, Jen Rubin Over Trump Judicial Nominee Criticism.

QUESTION ASKED: Can we find Bill Kristol a new job?

THE MOOCH, BILL KRISTOL AND THE NEVERTRUMP QUEST FOR RELEVANCE: From Roger Kimball at the American edition of the London Spectator. “Consider this headline: ‘Anthony Scaramucci talks to Bill Kristol about trying to force Trump off the GOP ticket in 2020.’ Can you guess the source? If you said ‘The Onion,’ you would have made a perfectly rational judgment… But no. A joke it may be — an absurdity, too — but the source of that story is not The Onion but CNBC, not exactly an unimpeachable source, I know, but at least one with some pretensions to reporting as distinct from satire.”

As Tom Wolfe wrote thirty years ago,“We live in an age in which it is no longer possible to be funny. There is nothing you can imagine, no matter how ludicrous, that will not promptly be enacted before your very eyes, probably by someone well known.”

ROGER KIMBALL: The Mooch, Bill Kristol and the NeverTrump quest for relevance: Anthony Scaramucci is a slightly preposterous footnote to the spectacle that is the Trump presidency.

ANNALS OF DEEP STATE AUTOPHAGY: Bernie Sanders and Bill Kristol Slap Fight on Twitter as Cracks in the #Resistance Form.

Related: Bernie Sanders Advisor Tweets Gif of Jeremy Corbyn Dancing on Margaret Thatcher’s Grave.

NORMAN PODHORETZ ON BILL KRISTOL’S DRIFT TO THE LEFT:

CRB: The Never Trumpers agree with you that Trump is an “unworthy vessel” but see nothing whatsoever to redeem his vices.

NP: Mainly they think he’s unfit to be president for all the obvious reasons—that he disgraces the office. I mean, I would say Bill Clinton disgraced the office. I was in England at Cambridge University when Harry Truman was president, and there were Americans there who were ashamed of the fact that somebody like Harry Truman was president.

CRB: A haberdasher.

NP: Right, and no college degree. And, of course, Andrew Jackson encountered some of that animosity. There’s snobbery in it and there’s genuine, you might say, aesthetic revulsion. It’s more than disagreements about policy, because the fact of the matter is they have few grounds for disagreement about policy. I mean, I’ve known Bill Kristol all his life, and I like him. But I must say I’m shocked by his saying that if it comes to the deep state versus Trump, he’ll take the deep state. You know, I was raised to believe that the last thing in the world you defend is your own, and I am proud to have overcome that education. I think the first thing in the world you defend is your own, especially when it’s under siege both from without and within. So the conservative elite has allowed its worst features—its sense of superiority—to overcome its intellectual powers, let’s put it that way. I don’t know how else to explain this.

CRB: Like Donald Trump, you don’t mind being politically incorrect, or what some would call populist.

NP: I often quote and I have always believed in Bill Buckley’s notorious declaration that he would rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston telephone book than by the faculty of Harvard University. That’s what I call intelligent populism. And Trump is Exhibit A of the truth of that proposition.

Plus some thoughts on who the left’s nominee in 2020 could be. Read the whole thing.

IT’S BEEN A BAD DAY FOR BILL KRISTOL:

Related:

Plus:

FAILED MAGAZINE EDITOR BILL KRISTOL TRIED TO STIR UP SOME ATTENTION BY CALLING KURT SCHLICHTER A RACIST. It did not go well.

But you can decide for yourself. Check out Kurt’s books, People’s Republic, Indian Country, and Wildfire. Form your own opinion, without further guidance from the Lido Deck. (Bumped).

AND, MOSTLY, EMBARRASSED THEMSELVES. BUT WITH EVAN MCMULLIN AND BILL KRISTOL AS STANDARD BEARERS, IT WAS INEVITABLE: Book: Never Trumpers have ‘failed.’