The New Republic has made many enemies over the years, mostly the right ones. And it can be proud of the latest man it has pissed off. No, I'm not talking about Bill Kristol, but Robert Mugabe. Last Saturday, the Zimbabwe Herald, (the state newspaper and mouthpiece of Mugabe's ZANU-PF party) unleashed one of its usual broadsides against the regime's enemies, real or perceived. Among them are yours truly and "the New Republican magazine" (I presume that the author of the column is not that keyed into American journalism, and that this was either a typo or some coy attempt to align TNR with the GOP...not, in other words, the sort of snide jab you'd expect to see at the Daily Kos). It appears that the piece was written by Mugabe himself (the repeated third person references strengthen this assumption) though it obviously may just be a ghostwriter or some other anonymous columnist. I guess calling Mugabe a genocidal "monster" doesn't endear us to Comrade Bob. The column groups TNR with the Guardian as being Britain's "most hardened propagandists." Strange bedfellows, indeed. --James Kirchick