Bill Kristol Finally Wrote Something Interesting!

U-S-A! U-S-A!

It took him about a year at the Times, but Kristol has finally written a column that is not a self-indulgent, intellectually dishonest repackaging of the week's latest RNC talking points. (I guess there are only so many times you can apologize for annointing Sarah Palin.)

I don't fully understand the economics of the auto industry, so I can't say with certainty whether Kristol's substantive ideas work well. But in taking a moment to call out the general disdain educated people, in particular, feel toward the American car industry--something, I'll admit, of which I am guilty given how strongly I believe that these companies have inflicted most of their own wounds--Kristol does us a service by acknowledging it and giving it some dimension in the contexts of contemporary politics and the ongoing financial crisis. I'll readily cop to being a car driver who happily lampoons the Big Three and enjoyed the condesension and righteous indignation with which they were treated in Washington. (Not necessarily something of which I'm proud.) Just as I'll cop to being a free-trade liberal simultaneously wary of unions, but also of allowing for patent mistreatment of workers by companies that aren't forced to do otherwise. So this is a column that finally says something. That finally calls for deeper consideration, rather than the garbage can.

If I am going to regularly get up in that ass () when he's his usual moronic self, it's only fair that I also acknowledge his rare moments of value.