Turn-a-coat Is Fair Play: Kathleen Parker Wins Pulitzer for Newspaper Commentary
Conservative-ish columnist-turned conservative-basher Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post is now King of the World, at least for the next year. Which once again proves the axioms that A) noisily changing teams is almost always good short-term career advice in the commentariat, especially if B) you change from Team Red to Team Blue (or at least from Team Red to criticizing Team Red), and if C) that change just so happens to coincide with a shift in the overall political zietgeist. As or more imporantly, however, there's D): turncoats are often at their most interesting and energetic early on during the Change. Think Arianna Huffington when she was a Shadow Conventioneer, Christopher Hitchens when he was throwing dog poop on the shoes of The Nation, Gary Wills when he turned decisively against Nixon and the National Review.
Reason on Parker here. Read Contributing Editor Kerry Howley's great profile on the columnist here.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
Parker is not a turncoat. She was never a conservative much less a libertarian. She has never been anything but a conventional wisdom spouting media liberal with a touch "I am blond and from the South and I look cute when I get cantankerous" thrown in. The only people who ever thought Parker was conservative were liberal editors who anointed her as one so they could use her attacks on conservatives as evidence that even their own kind thought they were crazy.
I'd hit it.
She is in her 50s I think. I wouldn't commit to anything until meeting her in person. Don't underestimate the power of photoshop.
Oh yeah. What John said.
You make it sound like 50s and sexy are mutually incompatible. I can assure you that you are mistaken in that notion.
I am not saying that at all. I am just saying you can't judge by the picture. There are lots of women in their 50s that are plenty attractive.
Even if they photoshopped out some wrinkles, so what? Googled her pics -- she looks hittable in all of them.
Yeah she does.
sage => cougar hunter
ROWL
Better cougar hunter than chubby chaser.
Wish I had you to tell me that, woulda saved me some trouble.
Pizza delivery!!
Get your hands off my man, bitch!
Someone doesn't appreciate all the extra chasms a BBW affords.
I concur
interesting and energetic early on during the Change. Think Arianna Huffington when she was a Shadow Conventioneer, Christopher Hitchens when he was throwing dog poop on the shoes of The Nation, Gary Wills when he turned decisively against Nixon and the National Review
Add to that list Andrew Sullivan and Charles Johnson.
You can only add them to the list if you include "those who went completely insane" as a qualifier.
Well, you have to admit, "interesting and energetic" certainly applies to Sullivan and Johnson post-switch. (Also insane, I'll grant.)
Johnson is actually a bigger paranoid lunatic than Sullivan. The guy is literally at war with his own readers.
I stopped reading LGF years ago. Even when he was on the right, there was still something unsavoury about the blog.
I think we can put Johnson in the "always insane" category.
Johnson definitely has some peculiar psychological issues going on regarding trust and agreement.
Back in 2004, Sullivan at least made some legit points about why he was opposing Bush. Afterwards, he ended up being shrill and predictable.
Sullivan was all gung ho for Iraq until it got hard and we actually had to kill some people. Then he jumped ship in the most craven manner. He did a lot to get people behind the war. But once the war got hard, he turned on it. He didn't object to the war on moral or legal grounds. He just didn't like it because it was hard and supporting it became unpopular.
That of course and the fact that he is obsessed with Sarah Palin's uterus.
True. I had in mind more the social conservatism/gay marriage aspect of his parting with the Republicans.
One other thing about Sullivan, the gay Left actually does have a point about him. He made his early career arguing that the male gay community was too promiscuous. He got behind gay marriage because he thought that, by giving gay men a way to be mainstream, it would get them to behave in what he considered a more "responsible manner". He was a real schoolmarm about sexual mores in the gay community.
That understandably offended the hell out of a lot of the gay community who really don't want to be told by Andrew Sullivan or anyone else how they should live. Then low and behold, Andy gets outed running a personal ad looking for bareback anal sex with strangers. What a piece of work. He makes his whole journalistic career telling the straight world how the gay community was full of depraved men having anonymous sex and the only way to stop that was to allow gay marriage. And then low and behold, he was doing everything he claimed was wrong.
Can you say "Cry for Help" ?
I think the proper word is he took a few points. You know, when he summered up in Provincetown and came back a changed man, sort of.
Or David Horowitz and Peter Collier
So, to recap, somebody I don't read won a prize I don't care about.
I'm more than willing to feign a mild interest in this. Can somebody explain why I should?
'Cause she has six fingers on her right hand and she killed your father!
Really? Why would a six-fingered journalist want to kill a guy who can't even remember who he is most days?
Because somebody isn't getting a Princess Bride reference?
Which should be a capital offense IMHO.
No, I'm ignoring a Princess Bride reference. The two make look similar to the untrained observer, but there's a difference.
I mean, if she did kill my dad, I'd have to get on that whole become the best swordsman in the world thing to go take her out, and by the time I got done she'd be what, 70? Nobody wants to see two geriatrics swordfight, and I just look like a dick for trying to slice up a little old lady. No, better to just let the whole thing go.
You can't weasel your way out of this, T.
Take him to the gallows!
Bet you scrolled up to check if she had 6 fingers though.
I would not say such things if I were you.
You have an overdeveloped sense of vengeance. It's going to get you into trouble someday.
Kathleen Parker
Who?
Racial shouting at tea party filmed:
http://www.breitbart.tv/flashb.....y-speaker/
Well..the dude's white, ain't he?
Well if "boy" secretly means n*gger (or so Maureen Dowd would have me believe), then "white boy" is like being called a wigger... or something?
I know it's pronounced wigger, but the accurate spelling is
Uighur.
It is perfectly acceptable to call a white man, "white boy", as in, "play that funky music, white boy".
Of course, calling a black man, "black boy" is not tolerable.
Parker is about as much on Team Blue as I am on Team Libertarian.
No, she is about as much on team blue as you are on team blue. She picked a fight with feminists over her book "save the males". And that is about it. Everything else she writes is pretty much straight line liberal thinking.
Awwww, John forget about that cavegirl from Wasilla. You'll always be welcome in my henhouse sugar;-)
That is right. She hates Sarah Pallin. Wow, that is some real out of the box, stick to the blue team thinking there.
I hate Sarah Palin. Does that mean I'm on Team Blue?
Yeah John.
Here is a link to her recent articles.
Notice there is "Hiding behind Hyde" in which she criticizes ObamaCare's Deceptiveness on abortion. In "Stupak's Original Sin" she castigates ol' Stupak for "dropping the baby" in supporting ObamaCare. In "Deem and Doom" she criticizes the Deem and Pass strategy. In "We're All Nebraskans Now" she skeweres ObamaCare's "sickeningly sweet deals."
These are just some of most recent articles. Yeah John, Team Blue.
John, do you ever have any empirical basis for what the hell you say? You have the fanatical hacks litmus test: she's not as fanatical as you are therefore she is Team Blue.
You're either 100% with us or you're against us...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....01816.html
Those articles you cited are just common sense, if that ended up looking 'conservative' to you then maybe you need to reconsider your batshit crazy Castro-humping brainfart you call liberalism.
Yes fanatic, despite the fact that millions of normal, job holding otherwise capable Americans disagreed with you and her on those topics those were just common sense. She gets no credit for agreeing with you on that. it's on all those other common sense issues (to you) where she joins the evil Devil side that shows her true colors.
Welcome to Nutsville Dude, population you.
Millions of Americans think Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks. That doesn't make denying his involvement any less common sense.
Amazing how you project MNG. All she is doing in those articles is pointing out the hypcrisy and corruption of the current Dems in power. Yet, you think that makes her a conservative. Essentially in your world, anyone who criticizes the Democratic Party is on the other team. It is astounding how you shamelessly and thoughtlessly project that thought onto me. You really are the most thoughtless person who posts on here. God, even Tony thinks about things harder and is more self aware than you.
How pathetic you become John as you actually say that criticizing Team Blue frequently is not enough to make one question that person's belonging to Team Blue. I mean, they are just criticizing the common sense obvious things (that millions on Team Blue at the time found not obvious)!
You're a hack dude.
I'm curious, other than frequently denouncing and disagreeing with one of the Team's, what in the world is your objective criteria for discerning if one is on one team or another? In my book when one frequently criticizes and denounces one side it is crazy to say they are on that side. But perhaps you have a more workable system? Pray tell us wise one...
I met her recently and she was absolutely gorgeous in person and could easily pass for 15 years younger, if not more. More importantly, she was as charming and lovely as a person could be. Congratulations, Kathleen!
Didja nailer?
Admit it, you're just angling for a three-way with her and Sarah Palin.
MILF!
Alt-Text win.
How many awards did Reason get back when they betrayed Ron Paul?
"It profits a man nothing to gain the whole world at the expense of his soul. But whales?" -- Sir Terrence Moore
In order to betray someone you must first be loyal to them, nitwit.
They betrayed him by printing facts! Oh, heaven forfend that they should smear Paul with the truth! Here's a fucking great idea, cuntsores: how about if your beloved Paul does not write racist shit or allow it to be published under his name? Or is that too fucking hard?
All you fucking slimy Paultard worms slither back under your rocks, please. If you can't handle reality, keep your fucking fantasies to yourselves.
Don't underestimate the power of photoshop.
Guru status wisdom.
The design of air Jordan shoes is very beautiful and the style is very rich . I believe you will find a part of your shoes. Welcome to our website [url=" http://www.airjordans.cc /"]air Jordan shoes[/url]
, we will provide a more favorable price to you.
kuyt
iuytg
Owing to the whole of the workers' hard working, the monster creates a large number of different kinds of products. In our outlet, there are plenty of styles and patterns of the beats beats by dre on sale for you to pick up. All of the products contain the connation of the culture of the monster. You can understand it from our products. From the small point on the headphones, you can feel the concerns of the monster. Even in the ear's design, it is so comfortable for you to put on your ears. Unlike other headphones, you can see the humanity design on the headphones, like the dre beats solo, monster dr dre beats and so on. All of the monster products are displaying on our outlet, you can see them easily.
If you want to experience the energy spirit of the monster, you should visit our outlet online at once. Here you can see a lot of various and colors of monster headphones. We are offering the bargain price for you that you can afford it. And in this new spring season, our outlets are having a huge discount for you and you just visit and pick up easily and freely.
Stop waiting until the weekend, when you can party or let loose,until summer, spring, fall or winter, until you find the right person and get married, until you die, until your born again, to decide that there is no better time than right now to be happy.Happiness is a journey, not a destination.So love like you have never been hurt, work like you don't need the money, and dance like no one's watching.wearing cheap christian louboutin when we want to attending a party please stop waiting.