[ExpandNATO]

"dearth of really high-powered brains,"

If true, this is sad. Reagan benefitted tremendously from having people like Richard Pipes (dean of Russian Studies at Harvard) on the National Security Council, when dealing with the Soviet Union. People who had studied the damn thing and knew how to hit it hard.

The current equivalent would be giving Daniel Pipes or Bernard Lewis a great say in how to deal with the Middle East.

[ConservativeMan55]

It doesn't take a degree to deal with the Middle East.
Just a couple of nukes.

[Cicero]

I believe Bush's advisers are familiar with Lewis and Pipes and their recent writings. They would be hard to miss. Being a first-rate theorist and scholar doesn't necessarily make you a useful day-to-day adviser.

[PianoMan]

The current equivalent would be giving Daniel Pipes or Bernard Lewis a great say in how to deal with the Middle East.

Sounds like Frum has the same type of snobbery towards think tanks shared by the media and the academy. The national think tanks (and even the regional) have a great deal of high-powered minds that are not welcome in places with a liberal imprimatur. I think Bush's cabinet has many brilliant faces and the tanks are giving him advice to match any academic scholar, especially given the abyssmal condition of our humanities departments.

[staytrue]

"dearth of really high-powered brains,"


You have never lived in Washington. Washington is full of arrogant self important people who underestimate everyone else's intelligence for the sole purpose of over estimating their own by comparison.

[aristeides]

The current equivalent would be giving Daniel Pipes or Bernard Lewis a great say in how to deal with the Middle East.

I understand Bernard Lewis advises the administration all the time.