NuDonk on TNR

Ed Kilgore riffs on the rift between the New Republic magazine and Left Blogistan's longstanding jihad against said publication. It's good reading and Ed catches one of the great ironies - there's actually a major point of agreement between the two parties and it arrives courtesy of one of the very points of contention - Marty Peretz.

When it comes to TNR specifically, one irritant to progressive blogospheric opinion is definitely going to be the continuing role of Marty Peretz as editor-in-chief. The big irony is that Marty's fantasy is an Al Gore candidacy in 2008, which also happens to be the fantasy of Markos and other netroots detractors of The New Republic. In the unlikely event that Gore decides to run, it will be fascinating to watch lefty bloggers make common cause with Peretz, as against the ostensibly more liberal cynics at TNR and elsewhere.

I'm more of a fan of Marty's, primarily because I like reading the opinions of cantankerous old people who have a good sense of historical context to put modern debates into. But Marty's pro-Gore, anti-Clinton fixation qualifies as grating. Not due to the fact that it runs counter to my views ... but due to the relative trivial nature of Marty's personal dislikes.

SIDENOTE: The NY Observer's blog reports that the Canadian owners of TNR have now taken a 100% stake in the magazine, buying out even Marty Peretz's share. That's significant because Peretz now no longer has a stake in the magazine for the first time since 1974. Peretz still will be an Editor in Chief, but it's an open question as to how long that'll be (a point not lost on Josh Marshall). I'm sure the countdown is on at other points in the blogosphere. But at some level, should it not rank as a loss to lose some of the intellectual consistency in American political opinion magazines?

SIDENOTE 2.0: Meanwhile, Matt Yglesias reminds me just how far the National Review has sunk since their old cantankerous man turned over the editorial reigns. Not long ago, I referred to viewing NR's annual conference on C-SPAN. Katherine Jean-Lopez immediately struck me as the single most banal and trivial of the bunch. I've since moved her byline toward my "Ignore Permanently" file. Perhaps in that light, Matt's note here shouldn't surprise me.