slightly OT:

this from the NY Post -- sure tells you where Heinz stands on Israel:

http://www.nypost.com/gossip/33033.htmOctober 31, 2004 -- THIS campaign is ending just in time before someone gets hurt. John Kerry's stepson, Chris Heinz, 31, displayed his mother Teresa's famous lack of rhetorical restraint at a recent campaign event with a group of Wharton students. Philadelphia magazine reports: "Heinz accused Kerry's opponents - 'our enemies' - of making the race dirty. 'We didn't start out with negative ads calling George Bush a cokehead,' he said, before adding, 'I'll do it now.' Asked later about it, Heinz said, 'I have no evidence. He never sold me anything.'" Heinz also reminded writer Sasha Issenberg of Pat Buchanan by saying, "One of the things I've noticed is the Israel lobby - the treatment of Israel as the 51st state, sort of a swing state." Buchanan was blasted as an anti-Semite years ago when he cited Israel's "amen corner" in Congress.

"Hitchens actually is endorsing Bush...."

This turns out not to be so.

"As Hitchens explains below, he did not intend his contribution as a statement of support for either candidate."

Also: "But I added that Sen. Kerry has made enough formal commitment to regime change in Iraq to make the prospect of his election a thinkable one, also. If I could choose the person whose attitude toward the immediate foe was nearest to mine, I would pick Bush (and Blair). But if I departed from the strictly subjective, and then considered the ways in which this administration has bitched things up, and further imagined what might happen to a Democratic incumbent who was compelled to get real, I could see a case the other way."

In closing, he is firm that he is making no endorsement of either candidate.

Typically, when David Horowitz says "Now the record is clear. Hitchens is voting for Bush," he is speaking falsehoods. (Two counts: Hitchens states that he is not even endorsing Bush, and he's not even a citizen and can't vote.)

Sullivan and Hitchens will undoubtedly be remembered as two of the most interesting political commentators of our era.

I confess that I quit reading Sully a while back, not just because I was peeved over his decision to back Kerry (although I certainly was) but because I felt he'd lost all his clarity and common sense. I even de-linked him from my blog for a while (like Andrew Sullivan really needs MY hits!).

But reading fellow Portlander Michael J. Totten's recent posts, I'm reminded that Sullivan still has a lot to say that's worth listening to, and I'm missing out by skipping his blog. (MJT seems to believe Hitch is endorsing Bush, too.)