Christopher Hitchens

Today, bloggers and pundits across the Internet are writing about the passing of Christopher Hitchens, certainly one of the most entertaining political writers of the last thirty years. He covered a broad range of the political spectrum in his own way, personally and professionally, over the years, becoming more pragmatic and conservative after the September 11, 2001 Islamist attack in New York. Whether readers loved or hated him, they had to admire his skill with both language and humor. Here is a sample of what others have said:

James G. Wiles at American Thinker
Ronald Radosh at National Review Online
John Derbyshire at National Review Online
Steven Hayward at Power Line

And here is a collection of "his most memorable bons mots" selected by editors at The Guardian. The column to the right of the article has links to additional commentary from his fellow Brits.

Robert Novak

My great uncle Charley was a small roller in the stock market in the late 1950s, but still subscribed to The Wall Street Journal. I'm not sure what it did for Charley, but it introduced me to the political observations of Robert Novak, a columnist and pundit I have enjoyed for half a century.

Novak died yesterday. James Joyner has posted a summary of fitting tributes at Outside the Beltway.

Steyn on the House Stimulus as Self-Abuse

You may not agree with what he says, but you can't escape the fact that Mark Steyn is one of the most entertaining observers of the political stage. His latest column is a must read critique of the House "stimulus" bill as an economic prophylactic guaranteed to put the nation on the road to serfdom. Blue Crab Boulevard provided the link.