For the right, being right isn't necessary.

The Bush era has shown conclusively that in Bushworld, often the more inept and blindingly wrong you are, the more you get elevated and lauded. A few examples are giving the highest civilian honor to CIA chief George Tenet after his miserable failure to provide solid intelligence previous to the invasion of Iraq, Condi Rice for being promoted to the coveted position of Secretary of State after presiding as National Security Advisor over the single worst failure of national security perhaps in our history, the grotesque neo-conman Paul Wolfowitz, prime architect of the nearly insane drive to turn an attack by Saudis directed by a Saudi based in Afghanistan and Pakistan into a disastrous invasion of a country who had absolutely nothing to do whatsoever with the attack, being given the head position at the World Bank, before those who work there sought to have the slime ball expelled and he gave them a reason by giving his main squeeze hundreds of thousands in dubious pay raises, etc.

And there's plenty more.

But on the media side of the coin, there's Bill Kristol.

The routinely brilliant "Tom Tomorrow" (aka Dan Perkins) (Do yourself a favor and read through the Tom Tomorrow archive of recent strips.) recently ran a strip regarding Mr. Kristol in which he includes the following quotes:

September 18, 2002
(war in Iraq) "could have terrifically good effects throughout the Middle East!"

November 21, 2002
(removing Saddam) "would start a chain reaction in the Arab world that would be very healthy."

February 20, 2003
"If we free the people of Iraq, we will be respected in the Arab world... and I think we will be respected around the world!"

March 1, 2003
"Very few wars in American history were prepared better or more thoroughly than this one by this president."

March 5, 2003
"I think we will be vindicated when we find the weapons of mass destruction and when we liberate the people of Iraq!"

April 4, 2003
"There has been a certain amount of pop sociology... that the Shi'a can't get along with the Sunni... there's almost no evidence of that at all!"

April 28, 2003
"The first two battles of this new era are now over. The battles of Afghanistan and Iraq have been won decisively and honorably."

March 22, 2004
(debates over an Iraqi constitution have shown) "the willingness on the part of the diverse ethnic and religious groups to disagree -- peacefully -- and then to compromise!"

March 7, 2005
"The Iraqi elections of January 20th, 2005... could be a key moment -- perhaps the key moment so far -- in vindicating the Bush doctrine as the right response to 9/11!"

November 30, 2005
"It is much more likely that the situation in Iraq will stay more or less the same or improve, in either case, the Republicans will benefit from being the party of victory!"

August 13, 2007
(Invading Iran is) "not a bad idea!"

The strip is entitled, "Failing Upward, a small sampling of the wisdom and insight which has just earned William Kristol a weekly column in the New York Times."

Yes boys and girls, this guy has recently been given one of the world's most prestigious soapboxes from which, it's presumed, he can continue to be jaw-droppingly wrong to a comic degree. Kristol has just been given a weekly column in the New York Times.

Bill Kristol, for those unfamiliar, is perhaps the most pre-eminent pundit, writer, and strategist of the neo-con brand of conservatism and co-founder of the neo-con bible, "The Weekly Standard", which was financed by good old Rupert Murdoch.

Kristol isn't some firebrand. He's cool, calm, and collected, and regarded as the intelectual leader of the political movement that has dominated our country since Bush took office.

When a movement's leader is this spectacularly wrong about everything, what does it say about the movement?

He also founded PNAC, or the "Project for a New American Century" which is infamous for having strenuously argued for invading Iraq long before 9-11, and in effect establishing a new American empire, essentially taking over the world, by sheer military force.

The strip can be read here.