>here's some "shabby" palace intrigue journalism masquerading as
>critical thought ... (goes on to post Hitchens article "The Kiss of
>Henry")
I now write:
Admittedly I was foaming at the mouth when I melodramatically opined that Hitchens is a "shabby palace intrigue journalist." I am ill-acquainted with his complete oeuvre, including his columns for _the Nation_. Nonetheless, in my view, in his relentess bashing of the Clinton myth (including especially his notorious support for Clinton's impeachment) he has been far too incautious about aiding and abetting reactionary social forces who are opposed to even the meager norms of bourgeois parliametary democracy and civil liberties (not that Clinton's record is anything to boast about). Also, in a recent interview w/ Hitchens (I forget the source, perhaps I saw it here on lbo-talk), he claimed that he no longer identified himself as a "man of the left," implying somehow that "the left" and corporate liberalism were one and the same. Someone once pointed out that both Hitchens and Cockburn (despite their differences), much as they are right-on in their critique of decadent and bankrupt corporate liberalism, romanticize the revolutionary potential of U.S. populism and see libertarian socialists in-the-making when they should actually be seeing racist lynch mobs and ardent defenders of "self-earned" property. (Jeezus, is that our range of choices ? Identify with the National Wildlife Federation or the militia movement ?)
Also, what gets my goat about Hitchens (please correct me if I'm wrong) is that he's fundamentally part of that inside-the-Beltway crowd he demagogically disdains -- e.g. his schmoozing interviews with Chris Matthews. Kind of like "anti-globalist" hippie kids whose parents are tax attorneys with 401K plans.
The following citations are probably a bit over the top (as the hard-line Trots are wont to be) but they convey the gist of my point(s):
"Journalist Christopher Hitchens: from 'left' charlatan to mouthpiece for the Republican right" http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/nov2000/hitc-n27.shtml
"Scoundrel time redux: Christopher Hitchens as a social type" http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/feb1999/hitc-f13.shtml
(I should also add that the folks at WSWS are scarcely hard left defenders of the "progressive wing of capital" a la the CPUSA press).
However, when all is said and done, I do want to mince my words a bit since I'm by no means familiar with the full scope of Hitchens' life work.
All best,
John Gulick