Just when I was feeling a touch of admiration at Hitchen’s decency and common sense in the matter of Paris Hilton, he goes and tries to slip us a mickey in the final paragraph, in the form of an appeal on behalf of one Scooter Libby. We (or at least I) want to believe that Hitchens, whatever misguided neoconservative flimflam he might subscribe to, is basically a decent and honorable guy. But it’s disturbing when it seems almost as if he’s willing to prostitute his own better nature in the service of yet another wing-nut political cause celebre.

I agree that Paris Hilton’s life is her own business, that the press’ (and popular culture’s) apparent fascination with her is tawdry and mean-spirited, and that there are more important things in the world. However, one of those more important things in the world is the extent of dishonesty practiced at the highest levels of our executive branch, and the hypocrisy of partisans of one of our two major political parties in abetting and excusing that dishonesty. Paris: insignificant girl with bad habits whose exploits affect mainly her own life. Scooter: convicted felon who happened to be doing the bidding of the vice president of our country, and whose felonious malfeasance likely protected said VP from the consequences of his own malfeasance. Don’t insult us with an intellectually dishonest switcheroo of these two very different people.

I lost a message I was sending. Anyway, Fingerpuppet has this about right. Hitchens succumbed to decency (but who made him watch the sex video? I haven't seen it). Also, what's the thing about Scooter Libby? I don't want to treat Libby the way mean people have treated PH, but I don't entirely see what makes him a cause. He did the bidding of a very unsavory VP and he lied under oath, which his supporters have previously indicated is a high crime when it's connected with sex. Is this the connection between PH and Scooter?

Poor Hitchens. After he left his buddies on the left while his new friends on the right take him for granted and even make fun of him, he's spent his time watching Ms. Hilton's video.

And now, by refering to her as a "helpless child", he's probably hoping she'll take note of what must be the only member in the media establishment who's taken her side.

Who knows? She might call to thank him after she leaves prison, eh?

His solitude is such that he's now trying really hard to get the right to take him seriously by showing solidarity with one of Bush's hitman. How else can you explain Hitchen's conviction that neither Bush nor his henchmen can do no wrong?

Has Hitchens really become this desperate for companionship?

Maybe Libby really is a good guy. It’s not like I have anything against him personally. But it just shows the extent of corruption in this administration (and I’d argue, in the Republican Party and the conservative movement in general) that an otherwise good guy is expected to commit felonies and violate the most basic concept of right and wrong in the course of doing his job. What’s really the icing on the cake, too, is how utterly petty the mission to “get” Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson was. Of course, other more principled Republicans have chosen to walk when they recognized the wrongness of what they were being asked to do. This option was always open to Libby, too. That he chose to do something that he surely recognized was illegal and ethically wrong is completely his own faulty decision. I’m sure that Bush will pardon him before his term is up, in any case.

Actually, I have to say, Hitchens usually seems to have good taste in women. I’ve read him waxing fondly about admirable and beautiful women like Marla Ruzicka (the young aid worker murdered while trying to serve the people of Iraq) and Ayyan Hirsi Ali (the Dutch-Somalian muslim dissident), and largely shared his admiration. I do appreciate his paternalistic (in the best sense of the word) impulses in feeling a certain pity for Paris Hilton, but she’s certainly not in a class with his usual type.