Doug Brinkley is a nice guy. I’ve met him several times, though I doubt he remembers it. Anyway, he’s managed to cultivate for himself a reputation as a major scholar very quickly and almost just as quickly he’s earning for himself a reputation as an astounding hack and political star-f…, uh, Toady. John Miller’s excellent piece in NR recently fleshed-out his latest stage of hackdom but it’s been going on for a very long time. If memory serves, his exploitation of John Kennedy Jr.’s death was stunning. In the begining of the week he said he’d been an aquaintance of his, by the end of the week it almost sounded like John-John had bravely given his best friend the last parachute in the plane so that the Word could live on.

If John F. Kerry is burning with a desire to be the new JFK than I nominate Brinkley as the new self-appointed Arthur Schlesinger.