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A sinking ship gathers no Ross
The Corner on National Review Online — ... ] The Atlantic Monthly 's Ross Douthat : If I were Hanson or Levin or Steyn I'd be devoting a little less time to ritual denunciations of heretics and RINOs, and at least a little more time to figuring out how to build the sort of ship that will make the rats of the DC/NY corridor want to scramble back on board, however much it makes you sick to have them back. ...

Hands Off Palin
The Next Right — ... Ross Douthat smartly reviews the unfolding civil war in the conservative pundit-sphere over Sarah Palin, and tries to call a truce of sorts: ...

Sinking Ships And Collapsing Tents
Newshoggers.com — ... By Cernig Ross Douhat absolutely nails the central issue of the current Cold Civil War (to borrow a term from Mark Steyn) in the GOP: an American conservative movement that consists entirely of those pundits with the rock-hard testicular fortitude required to never take sides against the family seems like a pretty small tent at this point. That pretty much says it all. Pass the popcorn. ...

Your Abbreviated Pundit Round-up
Daily Kos — ... Ross Douthat: A few of my fellow conservatives, the hard-liners, are having a hard time accepting the concept that they're losing badly... and that those who say so might be reasonable people. The rest tend to blog at NRO. ...

Can the recriminations wait? How about just a couple of weeks?
Classical Values — ... (in a post tiled "Hands Off Palin") of Ross Douthat's warning to certain conservatives. Noting the negative reactions of the latter to the negative reactions to Sarah Palin by certain Big Media conservative intellectuals, Douthat said, ...if I were Hanson or Levin or Steyn I'd be devoting a little less time to ritual denunciations of heretics and RINOs and at least a little more time to figuring out how to build the sort of ship that will make the rats of the DC/NY corridor want to scramble back on board, however much it makes you sick to have them back. I'd agree ...

MIDDAY ROUNDUP
News — ... are “jumping ship” from a sinking John McCain campaign has dominated discussion among the right, with Christopher Buckley’s departure from National Review winning acclaim from the left. Meanwhile, focus turns to the Senate, where sides are either pushing for or resisting a 60-seat majority for Democrats. The Republican Party needs to take a long look in the mirror and figure out why it is losing elections, instead of attacking those like Buckley, Kathleen Parker, and others, Ross Douthat writes. Those who have soured on McCain were the ones who had initially pushed him onto ...

Getting invited to all the cool shows and parties
Daily Kos — Douhat: I've always found the class-war element in inter-pundit sniping a little bizarre: Whether it's the netroots types hating on center-left columnists, or paleocons whining about how neocons get invited to all the cool parties, or Hanson's peculiar vision of David Brooks and Barack Obama chatting about Proust on the Acela (or something like that), it usually seems to involve the implication that successful newspaper columnists or think tank fellows live the lives of Hollywood starlets - or maybe Gilded-Age robber barons, maybe. ...

10/15: It's The Same Old Song...
Blogometer — ... dictator Saddam Hussein to ease international sanctions against his regime. The two lobbyists who Timmons worked closely with over a five year period on the lobbying campaign later either pleaded guilty to or were convicted of federal criminal charges that they had acted as unregistered agents of Saddam Hussein's government." Several liberal bloggers think that Obama should mention Timmons if McCain brings up Ayers at tonight's debate: THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The Conservative Civil War The Atlantic 's Ross Douthat : "...Suppose that you accept the most cynical account of, say, ...

"The Rats Of The DC-NY Corridor"
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan — Ross tries to talk some sense into the Corner: ...an American conservative movement that consists entirely of those pundits with the rock-hard testicular fortitude required to never take sides against the family seems like a pretty small tent at this point. And if I were Hanson or Levin or Steyn I'd be devoting a little less time to ritual denunciations of heretics and RINOs, and at least a little more time to figuring out how to build the sort of ship that will make the rats of the DC/NY corridor want to scramble back on board, however much it makes you ...

Re: Switch to decaf
The Corner on National Review Online — ... him, at the table when her speeches are being written and her policy positions are being hashed out. You need elites, and you especially need elites who work and live outside the conservative cocoon. That last bit reminds me of the apocryphal London newspaper headline "Fog In Channel. Continent Cut Off." Who's in which cocoon depends on where you're looking from. But, that aside, I'd say the GOP needs elites who work and live outside the elite cocoon - or what Mr Douthat calls " the DC/NY corridor ". As for the first bit, Peggy Noonan complains that she doesn't know what ...