Or Duncan Black, for that matter.

P.S. If nothing else, Domenech's debut and his very own Two Minutes' Hate seems to be making his blog quite popular -- the server is down as I post this.

P.P.S. I rather enjoy the elitism and religious bigotry embodied in the flurry of "home schooled = idiot" posts attacking Domenech out there. It's almost as if the left-wing blogosphere is wholly populated with the membership of the National Education Association.

But you also must ask yourself - what would the Right do if Markos Moulitas was signed on to blog for washingtonpost.com?

Yawn.

A few people don't like Ben Domenech writing a conservative weblog for The Washington Post. Instead of ignoring him or......

I still stand by my points regarding Domenech's lack of competence.

Well, okay I apologize for the Aggie crack also.

You're pretty funny, James. Nice try at misdirection and glad to see that you're admitting that Bennie got the job through connections and not merit. But to follow the path you've set us, what were these people doing at age 24? Think hard. Hmm. Kennedys - most actually had served in the military by that age- weren't wannabe gamers cheering on the demise and crippling of others. Hear tell, some of them got blowed up n' stuff and others actually got injured and still went on to public service. The others you list...Hmm...Did they get gigs for positions at top national institutions, at age 24, with virtually no experience? Hilary? Nope. Bayh and Jackson - I have no idea. But as to Bennie's experience and merit, I mean, we can't say for certain he's "Augustine" at redstate, so Bennie's written very little that he can lay claim to. Maybe a box turtle sex speech or something, but sorry, your examples don't actually support your point.

"And, really, is being chairman of the Loudoun County Republicans that big an advantage? Until the last decade, Loudoun was a rural backwater."

Yeah, Jimmy, play it. That's all he's every done. No Bush appointment, no Cornyn stretch as speech writer. Next thing you'll be telling me is that sex with box turtles is highly overrated. Or maybe you're talking about the Daddy? Then yeah, I agree, being in a tight relationship with Jacko Abramoff is certainly not that big an advantage ANY MORE.

Man, you are really stepping in it these days. Face it: The hiring of this kid by WaPo ranks right up there with Team Bush installing some know-nothing at NASA. And at FEMA. And at... See a pattern? No experience, but lots of the right connections.

He also completely lied about Gould's stance on creationism, either because he is thoroughly unprincipled or because he was both too sloppy to realize that maybe he'd want to quote *Gould's own words* as proof, and too thick to comprehend the real point of the article that he did cite.

You'd know all that if you actually read Myers' post for comprehension, but that's too much to ask of knee-jerk wingnuts these days, I suppose.

And other young "Republican operatives"? How about George Deutsch, the Aggie dropout who has about as good a grasp on science as Benny? Let me repeat that: *he couldn't hack Texas A&M*. Academic achievement ranks near the bottom of the list of qualifications as a GOP operative. All you need are connections, a willingness to toe the line (no matter how absurd and divorced from reality) and a heck of a lot of lip balm.

We can all agree that such things lower the quality of debate on the Internet, play to the worst side of our knee-jerk partisan nature and have no place in the modern public square. I look forward to engaging you in a serious, respectful discussion on the issues that matter most to the future of our nation.

... but in an earlier post in the same blog, he was acting all partisan again. Not to mention that's all he did at Red State.

He's all over the place.

I always found his pseudonym amusing, since St. Augustine was reflective, inquisitive, and intellectually rigorous--seemingly the exact opposite of the Redstate Augustine.

I can't say I foresee great things for him or his WaPo blog, although I guess if he's lucky he could be the next David Frum or something. He should probably be grateful for all the free pub he's getting from the lefty blogs, because I doubt anything he writes will merit attention.

Little did I know this Ben Domenech gambit from the Post was a secret plot to create the grist for more Abramoff blogging.

You see, it turns out the Domenech family came in for a number of Bush administration appointments. Not only Ben, but Ben's dad, Doug, who was White House liaison to the Department of Interior.

Or to put it more colloquially, White House guy to make sure Jack Abramoff got what he wanted with the Indians and the Pacific Island stuff.

Wayne Smith was the point man for Indian casino policy at the Department of Interior. He ended up having kind of a rough ride over at Interior. And, according to Smith, as reported last year in the Denver Post, Domenech told him "we had to pay attention to [Jack] Abramoff, because otherwise the religious right and (Ralph) Reed are going to come up and bite us, and our whole base will go crazy. They will light up our phones, shut down our phone lines."

According to Smith, Domenech was the conduit for Abramoff operative Italia Federici. Said Smith: "Doug would come down and say, 'Italia called and Jack wants this' That's how it all happened internally."

Probably not the last fun quote from these quarters.

All hell would break loose at RedState so do not give me that "over the top" excuse.

Yes, no Democrat ever got ahead because of connections. Ask the Kennedys, Evan Bayh, Jesse Jackson Jr., Hillary Clinton. . . .

And, really, is being chairman of the Loudoun County Republicans that big an advantage? Until the last decade, Loudoun was a rural backwater.