Vanity Fair's Christopher Hitchens is a difficult guest to interview because of his idiosyncratic timing.  But as Lileks confirmed for me tonight when he told me he could have listened to another hour after yesterday's first hour interview, Hitchens attracts the close attention of the audience.  You want to hear what he has to say even as you disagree. Here's the audio of yesterday's interview.  Here's the transcript. It is a wide ranging conversation. 

Mark Steyn guest hosted for Rush today and was by all accounts magnificent.  What Steyn, Hitchens, --and Lileks, David Allen White (his new book on Cardinal Lefebvre is available here, and the background on Archbishop Lefebvre is here), Claudia Rosett, Victor Davis Hanson etc-- bring to the table is the charisma of intelligence. 

Television has never attempted a program genuinely powered by intellect.  I am not sure it would work, but a weekly hour long talk show hosted by Steyn and featuring the folks named above would be worth watching, especially if Steyn did not feel obliged to "balance" time each show but only over the season.  I suspect it will never get made because television's "best and brightest" wouldn't understand and wouldn't enjoy not understanding.