But whatever price Hitchens was paying for indulgences of the night before did nothing to blunt his acerbic wit. The quondam Englishman turned naturalized American offered acid observations about both Dem contenders. Hillary was first in his sights. He described as "slightly sinister" her listing during last night's victory speech of Florida and Michigan among her primary wins, since by DNC rules those contests counted for nothing. By his lights, her inclusion of the two states portends nasty arm-twisting to come.
Then there was this: "Anyone who like me when they think about the Clintons thinks about zombies, thinks about the undead, thinks about stakes through the heart, silver bullets and so on, has just received confirmation. It's as bad as we thought it was going to be."
View video here.
Hitchens later said of Hillary that "she would do anything, she wouldn't mind running as George Wallace if it would get her the nomination."
If Hitchens cast Clinton as ruthless, he portrayed Obama as feckless and vulnerable.
HITCHENS: I've been trying to say about this for a few days now, that he's a very shallow and flaky candidate. And it's beginning to show. The trial of his friend -- is it Rezko or Rizko -- I'm not completely certain how to pronounce it, and the shady Iraqi backers of that man who've emerged recently. There couldn't have been a worse day to have a corruption trial open in Chicago. I think, it looked yesterday as if it wouldn't matter because it would be all over before anyone knows this. Now it's on the table. Extreme flakiness on the NAFTA question. Apparently very casual in his approach to that scare ad about why you'd want Hillary Clinton in granny glasses at three in the morning, when there was a crisis. But, you know, suddenly people are thinking, actually what is there to this except charm? That's the question he can't afford to have asked.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Are you calling Obama a shallow and flaky candidate?
HITCHENS: I repeatedly call him a shallow and flaky candidate. I thought he was an incredibly successful shallow and flaky candidate. I would add other things that are going now to get a second look that they've long deserved. This dumb, nasty, ethnic rock 'n roll racist church that he goes to in Chicago, that's gonna, he won't be able to walk away from that anymore. The crummy associates he's got in Illinois going on trial for corruption, with their Iraqi friends. None of this is going to get the free ride from the press that it was getting till about this time yesterday morning.
SCARBOROUGH: Wow.
Wow indeed. Republican readers might be cautioned not to exult too much in Hitchens' excoriation of the Dems. The professional iconoclast is likely at some point to cast comparable scorn upon John McCain.
Bonus Coverage: Todd Touts Thune For McCain VP Pick
View video here.
SCARBOROUGH: Any quick predictions as we go to break on John McCain's running mate?
CHUCK TODD: My bet has been John Thune. He's South Dakota, doesn't bring a state. They're very close, he was an early endorser. McCain's father and Thune's father actually had a relationship in the Navy. Thune is the next star of the Republican party. He's the closest thing they got to their own version of Obama: he's young, smart, articulate. Very conservative, conservatives will be happy. Got a nice smile. He's a conservative with a smile, which is what you gotta find.
SCARBOROUGH: I've never heard Thune, but I know John pretty well and he's a really good guy.
Interesting. Your thoughts on Thune?
