Where Have All the Neocons Gone? (who cares---just get 'em out of OUR party)

The American Conservative ^ | January 12, 2009 | Jacob Heilbrunn

[Liz]

EXCERPT Though neocons formed a kind of Praetorian Guard around John McCain during his campaign, their truculent approach to foreign affairs sabotaged rather than strengthened McCain’s appeal. The best that Sarah Palin, a foreign-policy neocon on training wheels, could do was to offer platitudes about standing by Israel. It seems safe to say, then, that the neocon credo is ready to be put out to pasture.

Or is it? One problem with this line of argument is that it’s been heard before—sometimes from the neoconservatives themselves. In 1988, after George H.W. Bush replaced Ronald Reagan, neocon lioness Midge Decter fretted, “are we a long, sour marriage held together for the kids and now facing an empty nest?”

Then in the late 1990s, Norman Podhoretz delivered a valedictory for neoconservatism at the American Enterprise Institute. Neoconservatism, he announced, was a victim of its success. It no longer represented anything unique because the GOP had so thoroughly assimilated its doctrines.

In 2004, a variety of commentators scrambled to pronounce a fresh obituary for neoconservatism. The disastrous course of the Iraq War, Foreign Policy editor Moisés Naím said, showed that the neoconservative dream had expired in the sands of Araby.

Yet the neocons show few signs of going away. The Iraq surge was devised by Frederick Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute and spearheaded by William Luti, a protégé of Newt Gingrich and Dick Cheney who is currently at the National Security Council.

Its success has prompted some neocons to claim vindication for the Iraq War overall. Nor has the network of institutions that the neocons rely upon melted away, from the Hudson Institute, where Scooter Libby and Douglas J. Feith are now ensconced, to the Weekly Standard and Fox News.

It’s also the case that the realists inside the GOP feel more embattled than ever. Sen. Chuck Hagel has pretty much resigned from the GOP itself as well as from his Senate seat, denouncing Rush Limbaugh and others as retrograde conservatives.

They have undeniably suffered a number of setbacks. The sun has set on the flagship neocon newspaper, the New York Sun, a victim of the financial crash.

The citadel of neoconservatism, AEI, has ousted Michael Ledeen, Joshua Muravchik, and Reuel Marc Gerecht. Meanwhile, Robert Kagan has incorporated realist tenets into his writings, while David Frum, who co-wrote with Richard Perle the standard neocon foreign-policy text, An End to Evil, and who previously demanded the expulsion of allegedly unpatriotic conservatives from the conservative pantheon (a move Russell Baker called reminiscent of the Moscow purges), now seems to be hinting at, among other things, a reassessment of neocon foreign policy. “I cannot be blind,” he conceded in a farewell address to National Review Online last month, “to the evidence … that the foreign policy I supported has not yielded the success I would have wished to see.”

Looking ahead, the neocons do not have an obvious horse. In the past they have glommed on to everyone from Sen. Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson to Colin Powell, whom William Kristol briefly touted for president. Another problem is that George W. Bush himself has increasingly deviated from neoconservatism.

With the fall of Donald Rumsfeld, on whom the neocons tried to blame the mismanaged Iraq War, Vice President Dick Cheney has lost out to the combination of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Even Kristol seems to have shed some of his habitual fervor, musing about the shortcomings of capitalism in his New York Times column and expressing the hope that Obama will put aright what has gone wrong.

The result has been something of an identity crisis in the ranks of the neocons. Like not a few revolutionary movements that have fallen on hard times, neoconservatism is experiencing a schism. Two camps are starting to face off over the question of the true faith, with the first embracing orthodoxy and the second heresy. The question they face is simple: Should the neocons continue to move right, serving as the advance guard of an embattled GOP? Or should neoconservatism become true to itself by returning to the center?

Will the movement, in fact, morph back into what it was at its inception in the late 1960s when it belonged firmly to the Democratic Party—moderate on domestic issues and mildly hawkish on foreign policy? --SNIP--

[TheFourthMagi]

Neocons are not bound to any one religion. Saying that they are is a scare tactic to get people to stop addressing a very real problem, exactly like contending those who oppose the ideology and policies of Barack Obama “must be” racist.

[Petronski]

Neocons are not bound to any one religion. Saying that they are is . . . is not something I did.

[calcowgirl]

Neocons are not bound to any one religion. Saying that they are is . . . is not something I did.

Kinda sounded like you did to me:

Neo-con is an epithet thrown at those who disagree and/or those who are Jooooos.
Identifying "neocons" is little more than a game of "spot the Jooooooo."

[Petronski]

Hmmm. What do “and/or” and “little more than” mean?

[calcowgirl]

Your posts tell me that you are unwilling to acknowledge that the gripe many have is with Neocon POLICIES
and has nothing to do with religion.

JMHO

[Petronski]

Your posts tell me that you are unwilling to acknowledge that the gripe many have is with Neocon POLICIES...

I have an old habit: I do not acknowledge what is not true.

[Liz]

Neocon POLICIES have nothing to do with a specific religion.

Groupthink neocon players forming US strategy of preemptive war (invasions without provocation) include:

Richard Perle, Eliot Abrams, Robert Kagan and William Kristol.....Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute.......former CIA Director James Woolsey; Bill Bennett (Catholic author of Book of Virtues); Frank Gaffney; Protestants Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Fred Barnes.........plus others too numerous to mention.

Many neocons---who invariably end up in highly visible positions of influence in the US government-----trace their status back to Prof Leo Strauss (U of Chicago).

Paul Wolfowitz (former US Ambassador to Indonesia, US Deputy Secy of Defense, President of the World Bank) got his PhD under Strauss. Strauss authored "Thoughts on Machiavelli"---NOT a condemnation of the evil Machiavelli philosophy on how rulers get power by manipulating the little people.

.........modern-day neocons emanate from the far left---they were Trotskyites who left the Commies when Stalin assasinated their hero...........

===========================================

The godfather of modern-day neo-conservatism is Irving Kristol, Billy Kristol's daddy, who set the stage in 1983 with his publication "Reflections of a Neoconservative."

Daddy Kristol (who was Giuliani's foreign policy advisor) notably said, "The historical task and political purpose of neoconservatism is.....to convert the Republican Party and American conservatism in general, against their respective wills, into a new kind of conservative politics suitable to governing a modern democracy."

[calcowgirl]

I have an old habit: I do not acknowledge what is not true.

Because, of course, you are all knowing as to the thoughts of everyone else.

How arrogant and idiotic.

[Petronski]

...the gripe many have is with Neocon POLICIES and has nothing to do with religion.

I don't need to be a mindreader to know this is BS.

How arrogant and idiotic.

I agree. Your post was arrogant AND idiotic.

[calcowgirl]

Grow up.

[calcowgirl]

Jeane Kirkpatrick, James Q. Wilson, Bill Bennett...

[Liz]

Thanks.

[Petronski]

You post ad hominem attacks on me, and when I redirect them to you, somehow I need to grow up?

That's rich.

[Liz]

Ever wonder how neocon Perle got billions to start an oil company in Iraq? Did it have something to do with Madoff.....and his pals?

MADOFF FEEDER FUNDS He was GMAC Chairman---bailed out by taxpayers to the tune of $6 BILLION---- and ran several hedge funds feeding Madoff---- J. Ezra Merkin was one of the key players with Madoff.

MERKIN'S CAYMAN ISLAND HEDGE FUND As GMAC chairman, J Ezra Merkin ran hedge funds as a sideline and was feeding funds into Madoff's operation (and pocketing hundreds of $millions in fees)-----Merkin's name is connected to (1) Ariel Fund, based in the Cayman Islands (a partnership between Merkin and Fortis Bank located in the Caymans----an infamous money laundering haven), (2) Ascot Partners, (3) general partner of Gabriel Capital LP, a $5 billion family of hedge funds, and, (4) managing partner of Gotham Capital.

At the time of his hedge fund shenanigans, Merkin was GMAC Chair (an auto-and home-financing company that got a $6B US bailout). Many felt Merkin should not be trusted with $6B federal rescue money GMAC received. Merkin resigned as GMAC chair recently.

Pictured are Bernanke, Paulson, Merkin---salivating to divvy up the taxpayers' billions. Americans have not yet learned the full extent of official corruption, thievery, schemes and scams involving $BILLIONS of tax dollars (aided and abetted by the dupes on Capitol Hill).

SWILLING TIMELINE In 2006, GM sold 51% of Merkin's GMAC to Feinberg's private equity firm----- Cerberus Capital Management LP-----(which also owns Chrysler).

BAILOUT SWILLERS Stephen A. Fineberg's private equity firm---Cerberus Capital Management LP--- also owns Chrysler Motors. The US Treasury is now buying a $5 billion stake in GMAC and lending $1 billion to GM. This latest loan is IN ADDITION to the $13.4 billion the US Treasury lent earlier to J Ezra Merkin's GM, and Fineberg's Chrysler.

HOGGING AT THE PUBLIC TROUGH In May 2004, Feinberg's "private investment group," Cerberus Capital Management, LP (Cerebrus is the three-headed dog that guards Hades), became majority owner of IAP Worldwide Services, Inc, one of the US Army’s largest contractors in Iraq. In Afghanistan, Feinberg's IAP runs a drug/addiction center" in Kunduz---Kunduz is the largest opium supplier in the world. BUSY LITTLE BEAVER Fineberg’s IAP also provides infrastructure support for the British Ministry of Defence in Kandahar....apart from supporting the US Army in Basra.

TIMELINE On October 19, 2006, John W. Snow, Secretary of the Treasury under George H.W. Bush, was named chairman of Cerberus.

BAILOUT SWILLING On Dec 30, 2008, the US Treasury reported it will provide $6 billion more for GMAC, then-headed by Merkin. The Treasury is now reportedly buying a $5 billion stake in GMAC and lending $1 billion to GM. The latest "loan" is in addition to $13.4 billion the Treasury lent earlier to GM and Chrysler LLC. GM sold 51 percent of GMAC in 2006 to Feinberg's private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP, which also owns Chrysler.

BAILED OUT AND STILL SWILLING Stephen A. Feinberg's IAP also serves a broad array of federal clients including the US DOD, NASA, the US Geological Survey, the US Agency for International Development, the IRS, and a variety of other federal agencies.

J Ezra Merkin and Stephen A. Feinberg, co-own Bank Leumi, bought from the Israeli government for $500 million.

[calcowgirl]

... ad hominem attacks ?

You purporting to know what others think IS arrogant and idiotic.

Nothing "ad hominem" about it.

You might as well whine and claim there are leprechauns dancing in your soup. Doesn't make it true... or believable.

[calcowgirl]

NOW I remember Cerberus! That three-headed dog thing reminded me:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2117232/posts?page=15#15

[calcowgirl]

Cerberus .... became majority owner of IAP Worldwide Services, Inc, one of the US Army’s largest contractors in Iraq.

I wonder if IAP was the firm that was funnelling dollars to our California Congress-Critter:

Report: Congressman backed defense project critical to donors (R - Jerry Lewis)

Rep. Jerry Lewis, who now chairs the House Appropriations Committee, denied wrongdoing in response to the USA Today story. He said he had no knowledge of the connection between the investment firm Cerberus Capital Management and the $8.8 billion project to build a secure computer network for the Navy and Marines until he heard about it from USA Today.

(snip)

[Petronski]

You purporting to know what others think IS arrogant and idiotic.

You're doing so right now.

How arrogant and idiotic.

[Liz]

Ooo-ooo-ooo......viscious dogs.

What is Cerebrus trying to tell us w/ that?

[Liz]

Nice find........

FROM FORBES: Named after the mythical three-headed dog that guards the gates of hell, Cerberus Capital Management has become a driving force among private equity firms.

One of its more recent moves is the purchase of 80% of Chrysler from Daimler in 2007.

Cerberus was also the lead investor of a group that acquired 51% of GMAC, the financing arm of General Motors.

The company also owns bus manufacturer Blue Bird and car parts maker TA Delaware (formerly Tower Automotive). Other holdings include a 45%-stake in Japanese bank Aozora, real estate services firm LNR Property, and a 52%-stake in ACE Aviation Holdings, the parent company of Air Canada.