[MarkL]

Hitchens is a reformed Lefty. Some part of him probably still needs to assuage a guilty conscience, and Kissinger is sufficiently distant in the past to avoid charges of contradiction when Hitchens now supports US policy.

Actually, he's NOT a "reformed leftie." He's still very much an avowed socialist, and still has great hatred for Kissenger, as well as Mother Teresa.

However, he despises Clinton for the lies he told (and wrote a book about it, "No One Left to Lie To"), and he realizes that the left is completely wrong about the threat that radical islamist pose to society. He voted for and supports President Bush in the war, simply as a matter of survival. Other than the war, he actually shares very few ideals with President Bush, and it's not something that he hides.

But the fact is that Hitchens is a man of principal, one who decided that because his views were wrong, they needed to be reviewed and then abandoned. It cost him dearly: Many of his former "friends" won't even talk to him anymore, and it's cost him financially, having lost the "golden boy" title of the left.

Mark

[syriacus]

Many of [Hitchens'] former "friends" won't even talk to him anymore, and it's cost him financially, having lost the "golden boy" title of the left.

I noticed that Amy Goodman, the hostess for the debate, asked Hitchens pointed questions near the end of the debate. She didn't do the same thing to Galloway.