Politics & Power Quote by Bill Kristol

Kristol’s question is less a request for information than a pressure tactic dressed up as procedural concern. The phrase “Shouldn’t Democrats insist” performs a neat bit of ventriloquism: a conservative commentator speaks in the voice of intra-party accountability, inviting Democrats to do his work for him. It’s the classic Washington weaponization of “standards” - not arguing the underlying issue on the merits so much as turning it into a test of discipline, optics, and punishment.

Calling Durbin “their whip, the number two man” is doing heavy lifting. It escalates the alleged offense (whatever sparked the remark) into a leadership crisis, framing it as institutional rot rather than a discrete controversy. That ranking language also narrows Democrats’ options: if you accept the premise that leadership equals endorsement, then keeping Durbin becomes complicity. Kristol is building a moral syllogism that ends where he wants: public rupture, embarrassment, and distraction.

The subtext is partisan jiu-jitsu. By pushing for a resignation fight, he manufactures a story about Democratic “extremism” or “tolerance” without needing to persuade anyone on policy. Even if Democrats refuse, the refusal becomes its own headline: evidence, in this framing, of a party unwilling to police itself.

Context matters: Kristol, as a prominent conservative strategist, thrives on shifting the battleground from legislation to legitimacy. This isn’t just commentary; it’s agenda-setting - a bid to make leadership credibility the scandal, and the scandal the campaign.