He hasn't been getting much attention the last few years so he had to say a few outrageous things to get to sell his books.
But no, he didnt get a free pass. IIRC he was plenty vilified back when he was a young up-and-comer during the Reagan years. When he got older and more "responsible" he faded in the background. Now he's making a fuss again.
Host, D'Souza has in fact been getting no end of grief from conservatives and other people on the right of center for this latest screed of his. For an example that collects a few examples, <A HREF="http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/002420.html">here is Virginia Postrel's take</A>. :<BLOCKQUOTE>Alan Wolfe concluded his Sunday NYTBR review of Dinesh D'Souza's latest hackwork with the following sentence: "I look forward to the reaction from decent conservatives and Republicans who will, if they have any sense of honor, distance themselves, quickly and cleanly, from the Rishwain research scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University." I realize that the Book Review can have long lead times--I have a review coming out next Sunday that I submitted in late October--but the lag is shorter for topical books. So I have to wonder whether Wolfe has willfully overlooked the strong negative reaction to the book that has, in fact, come from "decent conservatives." He can find that reaction conveniently catalogued by Eric Scheie here and here (via InstaPundit, whom Wolfe would almost certainly consider a conservative.) Wolfe reviewed The Future and Its Enemies, along with a number of conservative works, here.
I look forward to the attention the NYTBR will lavish on such intellectually serious books as Brink Lindsey's The Age of Abundance: How Prosperity Transformed American Politics and Culture and Brian Doherty's Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement. Remember the definitive review they ran of Ryan Sager's The Elephant in the Room: Evangelicals, Libertarians and the Battle to Control the Republican Party? Neither do I.
UPDATE: Alan Wolfe emails, "There was indeed a longish lead time on the review, as you suggest. I am extremely pleased to see so many on the right expressing hostility to DD's book."</BLOCKQUOTE>As you'll note, Alan Wolfe acknowledges the general distancing that righties have done from D'Souza. I'll be interested to see what the fallout at Hoover is.