Left-handed compliment from the right from the NYTimes

Sweetly bewildered article from the NY Times about Sam Brownback, a humanitarian politician who hews to the right:

Members of the Christian right, exemplified by Mr. Brownback, are the new internationalists, increasingly engaged in humanitarian causes abroad - thus creating opportunities for common ground between left and right on issues we all care about. So Democrats should clamber down from the window ledges, roll up their sleeves and get to work on some of these issues. Because I'm embarrassed to say that Democrats have been so suspicious of Republicans that they haven't contributed much on those human rights issues where the Christian right has already staked out its ground.

Kristoff properly urges the Democrats to ally themselves with Republicans on these humanitarian issues, but the gist of the article is that, while it is the Right that is recognizing much of the real suffering in the world today, it really can only be the Left that steps forward with the humane, workable solutions.