Christopher Hitchens is a complicated guy. One minute he’s ripping into the memory of Ronald Reagan. The next minute he’s tearing Michael Moore--and his latest film Fahrenheit 9/11--a new one.
Back when I was still a Democrat, I remember listening to an exchange between Hitchens and Gore Vidal (Al Gore’s cousin) on Pacifica Radio’s KPFK. It was my first introduction to Hitchens. He played energetic Leftist firebrand to Vidal’s curmudgeonly, old Leftist sage. I’ve rarely laughed so hard in my life, and it wasn’t in derision.
It seems to me that Mr. Hitchens has an extreme dedication to honesty; that is, giving his honest opinion. Whether it is an opinion with which the Left or the Right agrees is irrelevant to him. You have to admire a man--sometimes grudgingly--who refuses to toe a party line at the expense of honesty, whatever those lines may be.
