Good Republican weblogs, and other Republican weblogs

My goal was to find well-reasoned weblogs that take the opposite of my usual political views. In the category of good, Republican-leaning weblogs, I suggest Daniel Drezner's site, and The Volokh Conspiracy, which is a group weblog. I'm cheating a little to recommend these sites because they lean libertarian, which is an easier perspective for me to swallow than a standard conservative viewpoint. Still, they're good to take a look at.

Many nominations for the not-so-good Republican-leaning weblogs, but the top of the list in terms of importance is the Instapundit. Lots of knee-jerk postings with little thought involved. Here's an example, linking to another blog, Transplanted Texan:

INTERESTING LETTER FROM MARK TWAIN to an American expatriate worried about his country's reputation:


'Is it France's respect that we are going to lose? Is our unchivalric conduct troubling a nation which exists to-day because a brave young girl saved it when its poltroons had lost it - a nation which deserted her as one man when her day of peril came? Is our treacherous assault upon a weak people distressing a nation which contributed Bartholomew's Day to human history? Is our ruthless spirit offending the sensibilities of the nation which gave us the Reign of Terror to read about? Is our unmanly intrusion into the private affairs of a sister nation shocking the feelings of the people who sent Maximilian to Mexico?'

It goes on, but the problem is that neither Reynolds nor the original poster seem to realize that Twain CHANGED HIS MIND, going from a supporter of the Spanish-American War to an opponent, especially of the US occupation of the Philippines. Twain is the last person that an Bush supporter on Iraq should be quoting, and I think they seized on one small fragment of history without even knowing about the larger context. Instapundit lacks the comment section most blogs have, so there's no chance to set the record straight.

To give Instapundit some credit, the site does have interesting links to news, sometimes. As for Transplanted Texan (the original poster), I can't really say how good or bad it is. At least he does have a comments section. I'll put in a trackback, and maybe he can tell me how wrong my postings are.