Conservative Knives Are Out for Bill Kristol After He Tells Fox News it 'Won't Kill the Country' to Raise Taxes on Rich
Appearing on Fox News Sunday to talk post-election politics, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol informed the other members of his panel it was time to face reality and give the people what they want.
"Four presidents in the last century have won 50 percent of the vote twice: Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Reagan, and Obama," the influential neocon said. "It pains me to say that, to put him in with those other three, but it's a fact. Democrats picked up seats in the House and the Senate. The president is in good shape."
Recognizing the self-evident — that "elections have consequences" — Kristol went on to suggest that perhaps it was time for the Republican Party and the conservative movement writ large to "pull back, let people float new ideas."
Like, say, raising taxes on the rich: "Let's have a serious debate. Don't scream and yell when one person says, ‘You know what? It won't kill the country if we raise taxes a little bit on millionaires.' It really won't, I don't think."
Breitbart and other conservative outlets were quick to go after Kristol for daring to suggest the smallest possible addendum to the status quo: Taking new ideas into consideration.
"Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, is looking for someone to whom to surrender," writes Joel Pollak. "And so is much of the Republican establishment, so desperate to hold onto positions of influence that they are willing to abandon the newly-confirmed House majority and a bedrock Republican principle for the last two decades."
That "newly confirmed House majority" was elected with half-a-million fewer votes than the Democratic minority thanks to extensive gerrymandering, and even House speaker John Boehner was forced to acknowledge that the GOP "lost badly" and had to avoid "nasty showdowns."
But that's hardly any reason to abandon immutability in the face of facts, is it?
