I think you're right: Lisp was a handy tool for hacking things up. This is because it didn't distinguish much between program and data. This allowed hackers to manipulate functions very easily, just like data.
But lisp is quite difficult for humans to read, with its braces and non-distinction between data and program. Today, I won't use lisp for any production AI code (or perhaps even prototyping) but would much prefer python for scripting.
Another thing to consider is the existing libraries/tools in/related to the language. I am not in a position to compare lisp libraries with python libraries, but I guess libraries and open source matter a lot more now than before.
This answer was inspired by the following comparison between lisp and python: http://amitp.blogspot.com/2007/04/lisp-vs-python-syntax.html
