The plague of migratory hacks begins

It is July. Which means a new season of op-ed columns -- that written by our glorious pundits while on their holidays, consisting of little more than their previously frozen views, spiced with some supposedly relevant observation from their Grand Tour. One of the noteworthy things about the pundit vacation is how quickly they flee hoi polloi when it's their own precious time on the table; sure, it's nice to sing the virtues of the common man and Dubya's effortless touch with said creature the rest of the year, but now it's our time to live and that means some combination of long flights, ferry trips, and fancy hotels -- whatever it takes to keep the average beneficiaries of Dubya's tax cuts at a safe distance.

For Tim Russert, who spends the rest of the year being from Ireland and Buffalo, that means Nantucket. While for Reagan groupie and Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, it means Mayfair in London. Roger Ailes (not the bald repulsive one) catches the normally decorous Peggy using retard as a noun in her London postcard to her readers, but when following the link to the same piece, we were equally struck by this:

History has been too dramatic the past 3 1/2 years. It has been too exciting. Economic recession, 9/11, war, Afghanistan, Iraq, fighting with Europe. fighting with the U.N., boys going off to fight, Pat Tillman, beheadings. It has been so exciting.

After you've taken another look at the things Peggy finds exciting, contemplate the horror that this woman may actually be representative of influential neocon opinion -- which makes Dubya's apparent incompetence in pursuing the War on Terror seem like it might be part of a deliberate stratgegy. Terrorism is exciting!