... and he loves America (at least enough to become a citizen last year.) Let's face it, Hitchens is pretty much a nut job, but sometimes he comes close to a good commentary.

The important thing to remember is that Jesse Helms was repeatedly ELECTED by a lot of Americans. His cruelty and bigotry were, and are, a reflection of the views that still persist in far too many Americans.

The rest of the world sees our elected leaders, our supreme court, and other manifestations of American popular opinion, and they cringe. And the rest of the world is finally figuring out how to hit us where it counts - in our wallets, in the value of our dollar, and in the price of our oil.

I love the America that was founded on principals of freedom by men like George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. But then again, Jefferson was a slave owner, even at a time when the rest of the civilized world was abandoning this terrible institution and many Amercans were decrying its hypocrisy.

Helms should serve as a reminder that, even in modern times, America is schizophrenic, or at least suffering from multiple personality disorder.

I guess America is the right place for Christopher Hitchens after all.

Come now. Hitch has been a Reagan apologist after leaving his lefty days behind him. This trashing of Helms is sheer intellectual hypocracy given Helms' important role in the "Reagan Revolution." Like Slick Willie and Monica, Hitch and Helms have a bit more in common than is being admitted to here.

Either that or Hitchens is able to acknolwedge that Ronald Reagan didn't support apartheid and promote pro-segregation attitudes. Little thing like Reagan and Helms not being the same person might have something to do with it.

Tovarish Hitch likes America when we do what he thinks we should, i.e. serve as canon fodder for the cause of democracy. At all other times we are a bunch of barely tolerated bumpkins. Hitch might have changed his politics, but he still has much of the Bolshevik love-hate for the people.

Personally, I can do without Hitch's kind of love. It is a tragedy that so many people die on their way to this country are are deported and treated like crap, but this wine-besotted pen pusher can become a citizen. [There I went opinionated]