> Ha, I can easily picture Eddie J., being a twitty bore, and Hitchens,
> especially a drunk Hitchens, having this very conversation with him, much
> to the amusement of himself, and anyone else in earshot who brought a clue
> to the party.
How about that "drunk Hitchens" thing? The slanderers of Hitchens (including oh so Left Cockburn) keep bringing up his drinking habits. I just love Puritanism myself -- can't tell you how much I enjoy having humorless Marxists and earnest New Agers tell me why I shouldn't have a nip when I want. Cluck cluck.
Funny thing is though, Hitchens has made no secret of the fact he likes to drink. (I'm always terribly amused when someone is "outed" for behavior they never sought to hide.) I remember seeing him on C-SPAN's Booknotes when his book _For the Sake of Argument_ came out. Brian Lamb asked him how the interview might be more pleasant to him. Hitch said something to the effect that "all things being equal, I'd rather be smoking a cig and having a drink while we have this conversation." Lamb, of course, displayed appropriate horror at the thought and continued to interview H.
> moving back to the admiration mode-p
Well I part company with him on a variety of issues (the most famous being his anti-abortion trope), but I find the reponse to his betraying his friend (if that is what it was -- I certainly don't know) as most interesting indeed. It's right up there with Bernie Sanders' (the supposed Socialist) support of the bombing of Iraq on the eve of the impeachment vote.
Hitchens is a drunk, therefore don't listen to him. Clinton is President, therefore if he fries a few folks to try to divert attention from where his other missle has been, well, he's President, we need to support our boys (oops! and Girls).
Bullshit.
-j