Nick Pistof Makes Like Dick Morris and Sucks

Nick "Pistof" Kristof takes time out from his regular schtick of posing self-righteously in front of foreign squalor -- on someone else's dime -- to bash Bill Clinton in the guise of offering advice to the Democratic party. James Wolcott effectively eviscerates Kristof's fraudulent advice.

For those who don't want to bother reading Pistof, his advice boils down to: Democrats should be more Christ-like and start executing people if they want to retake the White House.

There's three additional points that need to be made about Pistof's long-lost pal, Ricky Ray Rector.

One: Mr. Rector's mental disability came about after the killings which resulted in his death sentence. After killing his victims, Rector turned his gun on himself and self-lobotomized in an unsuccesful attempt to kill himself. Rector was not a man who, at the time of his criminal acts, lacked the capacity to understand right from wrong.

Two: Bill Clinton did not prosecute Mr. Rector, he did not preside at the trial of Mr. Rector and he was not among the jurors who rendered the verdict against Rector. Clinton could have prevented the execution in his capacity as governor. Clinton also supported the death penalty, like almost every Democrat who wants to be a governor in these United States. That does not mean Clinton executed Rector or "presided over the execution."

Three: Most importantly, the whole Rector story stinks of urban myth. I've been searching for a full account of the matter on the internet, and can't find one. Did Clinton make a special trip to Arkansas, as the story has it, or was he required to return to perform official duties? What's the evidence (as opposed to wishful thinking) that Clinton's trip was calculated for political gain? There's no evidence, and Pistof cites none, that Clinton "won his credibility" among "Heartland" voters, or any voters, by returning to Arkansas on the eve of the execution.

I oppose the death penalty in most cases (I make an exception for people who name-drop Oxford anywhere in the first three paragraphs). I also have no use for phonies who cherry-pick facts to bash Democrats while remaining silent about equal or greater offenses by the Republican Party. And Kristof's writings are as phony as his hair color.