Apostasy Watch

In this corner, National Review (in the person of Michael Rubin) bashes Condoleezza Rice.

Condoleezza Rice may still be a media star, but her track record places somewhere around Warren Christopher in the annals of recent State Department history.

Neoconservative dismay at Rice's record has really been a long time coming; delayed, probably, by an unwillingless to knock the last popular member of the Bush administration from the Vice Presidential stakes.

In this corner, The New Republic (Jonathan Chait) bashes Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Chutzpah).

What's the point of running to uphold Democratic hawkishness when you're running against the Democratic Party and its chosen nominee? Lieberman is fighting on terrain that, from the perspective of the liberal hawks, could not be less advantageous.

It has stopped being a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party and become a battle for Lieberman to keep his prestigious job. If the ideas that he professes to value above all else are really his highest priority, he should drop out of the race.

The left side of the blogosphere likes to malign TNR as "Joe Lieberman Weekly," only in part because the magazine issued a gut-busting endorsement of Mr. Three-Way Split Decision for Third Place in the 2004 presidential gauntlet. It's worth remembering that Chait was one of the TNRers who shook his reasonable head at that.

Read Brian Doherty's analysis of the Lieberman defeat here; read a roundup of more Reason coverage wrapped up by Tim Cavanaugh here.