I, too, am delighted to hear that we’re doing so well traffic-wise, gaining on The Huffington Post etc. As some of you may know, the Corner was my idea. It was item #9 on a list of ten ideas for NRO — and the ninth best idea over all. Delirious from a three-day bender, Lowry summarily rejected the other ideas and now the memo is lost to history (or maybe just an old computer in my basement). If only Lowry had the vision and moral clarity to accept my other ideas as well, today NRO would be your source of cheap affordable energy, guaranteed strategies to pay no taxes, and your one-stop vender for happiness and fulfillment. But no. Lowry couldn’t cope with that much genius and innovation. So all you get is the Corner, your home for Volcano-Lancing news, congressional handicapping, arguments about American exceptionalism and updates on the Islamification of Europe.
Anyway, here’s something you may not know. The Huffington Post is a rip-off of the Corner. My friend Andrew Breitbart was tasked with creating the Huffington Post as a work for hire (needless to say he didn’t last long there). His inspiration was the Corner, where our insouciant mix of wonkery, political handicapping, witty badinage and pull-my-finger jokes had mesmerized Andrew for years. The Huffington Post of course evolved, but deep down in its mutated DNA you can find the Corner’s influence lurking, like a guy in a rain coat on a hot day at the library.