The Biweekly Standard.

I subscribe to The Weekly Standard, but it seems to show up in the mail in fits and starts. Sometimes only a day passes between issues.

Thus I ended up reading this editorial over the weekend. It offended me. Here's Bill Kristol, one of the first conservative intellectuals to attack President Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to SCOTUS, dissociating himself from the President's troubles:

How to recover? Begin by facing reality.

The Miers episode did more damage than one might have expected. It raised doubts about Bush's judgment, on top of the Katrina-related doubts about White House competence, which have lingered. But Miers, and Katrina, are over.

It seems to me that the reason the Miers nomination turned so negative for Bush was because people like Kristol, George Will, Charles Krauthammer and the gang at National Review mau-maued her far more effectively than the Democrats ever could have. It his own allies turn on him and denounce him, how can anybody expect his poll numbers to hold up? And to then speak of it as if you had nothing to do with turning it into a disaster seems the height of arrogance and hypocrisy.

Perhaps Miers wasn't the best candidate, but she isn't as empty-headed and ignorant as conservative media pundits made her appear. They should not be allowed to pretend that they had nothing to do with Bush's present troubles. It's apparent that despite their professed contempt for the MSM, they are part of it and see the world through the same lens, albeit without the same slant.

Now Kristol wonders why Bush isn't out there punching. It's kind of hard to do that when you're carrying the knives of your "friends" in your back. I don't agree with every choice Bush makes, but I respect his judgment and his desire to do what's right. I support him, because that's what supporters do, and because I understand how difficult it is to govern when the Democrats and the MSM are campaigning against you full time. Having a herd of backseat drivers beating on you doesn't help.