Someone filled with hatred for both Mother Theresa and Ronald Reagan who is cheered by some on this site?Dude. What we cheer on this site is reasoned, intelligent discourse. Hitchens sometimes provides it.
Time and again you'll see "reasoned, intelligent" commentary dismissed on this site because of the source and the source alone (e.g, the publication in which an article appears, the member join date if it's a comment made by a member/"disruptor", etc).
This, however, doesn't seem to apply to Hitchens, who gets a free pass for his willingness to bash Bill Clinton a few years back.
Pat Buchanan, for example, makes excellent points from time to time but you won't get 5-10 replies deep into one of his posts without someone dismissing his points soley because of who the source is. Why such a despicable person as Hitchens gets a pass is quite...odd.
Intelligent discourse is ordinarily not prefaced by, "Dude".