Yummy Schadenfreude

Ooooh, media cat fight! Watch for flying fur.

Now, thanks to the coarsening effect of the Internet on political discourse, the magazine may have lost something else: its reputation as the cradle for conservative intellectuals and home for erudite and well-mannered debate prized by its founder, the late William F. Buckley Jr.

May we add that Just Another Blog (From L. A.) does so much more than its share to coarsen the political discourse that we're waiting for some (any) kind of award. And might we assume that the print & on-line portions of the vast NR empire are not too happy w/ each other?

National Review, as the most pedigreed voice of conservatives, has often been tainted — unfairly and by association, some argue — by the tone of blogs, reader comments and e-mail messages. “Bill was always very concerned about having a high-minded and thoughtful discourse,” Rich Lowry, the magazine’s editor, said. “If you read the magazine, that’s what it was and that’s what it is.”

An admission of intellectual bankruptcy:

Wick Allison, publisher of the magazine from 1990 to 1993, believes that over the last several years the magazine became “the intellectual defender of the Bush administration” and said it had “run out of ideas.”

Gee, how did that happen? How could they run out of so many ideas so soon? Former Bush speechwriter David Frum's exit from the magazine is the starting point for the NYT story. Here's what Frum has to say:

“I am really and truly frightened by the collapse of support for the Republican Party by the young and the educated,” he said.

Y'all made your bed w/ baloney & cheese blankets & white bread w/ mayo sheets; now you have to lie down w/ whomever that attracts (wretched, old & stupid people, mostly).