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What’s He Smoking?

Maybe it's a drug problem? Comedian D.L. Hughley may just be on to something. Take Hughley's recent exchange with neocon Bill Kristol, editor of Rupert Murdoch's Weekly Standard, on Bill Maher's "Real Time" on HBO.

Kristol: "We're not failing in Iraq. In fact, we've done an amazing job. If you had said six months ago that we would have a total of 300 American casualties, and rather few Iraqi casualties--I mean under 10,000 probably--no ethnic warfare, no religious warfare, huge parts of the country pretty peaceful, the American military doing really a fantastic job of running the country, parts of the country, that was all good news. Now the bad news is there's a nasty counter--there's a nasty insurgency that we need to crush, because there are Baathist remnants, and there are terrorists there."

Hughley: "You're high, aren't you? You're high! [laughter] [applause] I have a cousin in rehab and he says a lot of the same things, let me tell you. [laughter] [applause]

Katrina vanden Heuvel

September 21, 2003

Maybe it’s a drug problem? Comedian D.L. Hughley may just be on to something. Take Hughley’s recent exchange with neocon Bill Kristol, editor of Rupert Murdoch’s Weekly Standard, on Bill Maher’s “Real Time” on HBO.

Kristol: “We’re not failing in Iraq. In fact, we’ve done an amazing job. If you had said six months ago that we would have a total of 300 American casualties, and rather few Iraqi casualties–I mean under 10,000 probably–no ethnic warfare, no religious warfare, huge parts of the country pretty peaceful, the American military doing really a fantastic job of running the country, parts of the country, that was all good news. Now the bad news is there’s a nasty counter–there’s a nasty insurgency that we need to crush, because there are Baathist remnants, and there are terrorists there.”

Hughley: “You’re high, aren’t you? You’re high! [laughter] [applause] I have a cousin in rehab and he says a lot of the same things, let me tell you. [laughter] [applause]

Kristol does seem to be exhibiting signs of erratic behavior. After cheerleading for Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and other architects of the war, Kristol is now filling his weekly magazine with articles lambasting current Iraqi policy and attacking the Administration for its poor postwar planning. Maybe it’s a form of political rehab?

Katrina vanden HeuvelTwitterKatrina vanden Heuvel is editorial director and publisher of The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture. She served as editor of the magazine from 1995 to 2019.


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