They Only Look Dead

American Conservative ^ | 2009-12-22 | Daniel Larison

[rabscuttle385]

Justin Raimondo detects yet another death of neoconservatism and yet another resurgence of non-interventionism on the right. As usual, he takes isolated examples, misinterprets them and then grossly exaggerates their importance. It is great news that many Tea Party protesters support something like a non-interventionist foreign policy. As many of them were originally Ron Paul supporters, just as I was, it makes sense that quite a few of them do support this. It would be even better news if there were any reason to believe that most of the Republican Party and conservative movement shared their foreign policy views. The very thing that Raimondo cites as evidence of this, namely the criticism Tea Partiers are receiving from Frum’s neoconservatives, is proof that it is not so.

At the moment, Ron Paul is getting a hearing on fiscal and economic policy because it suits both party and movement to pretend that the GOP values fiscal responsibility and limited government. We know that the party does not value these things, but it is a start. It is on these issues that Tea Party protesters and the rest of the movement are finding common ground. That is fine as far as it goes, but movement conservatives are fixated on questions of spending in order to avoid taking any responsibility for the foreign policy they have endorsed for years. Like Pawlenty, who is now trying to appeal to Tea Party sentiments by suddenly adopting the positions they favor, these conservatives blame Republican collapse on excessive spending and corruption. They are reacting to what they believe was the lesson of the 2006 and 2008 elections. The only trouble is that they have learned the wrong lesson. As ever, the war in Iraq and the GOP’s other foreign policy mistakes are never mentioned, and just like Pawlenty they continue to believe that invading Iraq was the right thing to do.

What Raimondo seems unable to grasp is that Republicans and movement conservatives are encouraging and tolerating Tea Party protesters in spite of their foreign policy views, which they know they can safely ignore anyway. The attacks on their foreign policy views by Frum et al. are a desperate bid to make them seem unacceptable to party and movement leaders in order to derail Tea Party advocacy of libertarian and small-government conservative economic and domestic policies. Why do Frum et al. focus on the Tea Party protesters’ foreign policy views and their support for Ron Paul? They do this because they are reasonably sure that most Republicans and conservatives see these things as liabilities. It is not true that the only thing that matters to Frum et al. is foreign policy. Most of what Frum has been doing for the last several years and the purpose of his website have been to move the GOP and the movement to the left on most domestic policies.

On foreign policy, Frum and his colleagues are not at odds with the rest of the right, and they know it. It is on domestic policy where they are on the margins and have relatively little influence at the moment, and so they are trying to undermine their opponents in domestic policy debates by drawing attention to foreign policy views that the Tea Partiers hold and which most on the right seems not to hold. It is the equivalent of “centrist” Democrats c. 2003-04 using progressives’ foreign policy views against them, but the difference is that the “centrists” in the GOP have the majority of the party on their side when it comes to foreign policy. That is lamentable and disastrous, as the recent elections have shown, but it is the way things are at present. At the moment, neoconservative domestic policy arguments are out of favor, but there is scarce evidence that their foreign policy arguments are unpopular among Republicans and conservatives. When even some of the “antiwar” Republicans on Afghanistan vote for imposing sanctions on Iran and wish to launch a war against Iran, it would appear that neoconservatism is not nearly as politically weak as we would like it to be.

[Liz]

There he goes again-----Frum's full-time occupation is being an ****ole. BTW, there's a reward out for anyone who can determine what Frum and the rest of the pukeneos actually do for a living-----with a bonus if you can find out who signs their paychecks.

No one has yet figured out if the pukeneoes have any visible means of support...... other than infiltrating the US government, putting out agit-prop, incessantly pontificating on foreign policy issues, squatting in the Repub Party, and kicking us so/cons to the curb .

Oh wait---I just remembered (snicker)...... Punkneo Perle IS going into the oil business in Iraq. Nice that US tax dollars and the blood of young Americans made the region safe for Perle's business ambitions, wasn't it?

Pukeneos get paid handsomely to squat in the Repub Party, kicking so/cons to the curb, hoping to destroy it from within. (That ain't happening.)

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

And now--The Winner of the 2008 Best Election Night Performance Award in the category of:
"Neos Know Nothing About this Republican Disaster."

Smirkin' Billy Kristol (McCain's campaign mastermind)

"Thank you very much. But I could not have done it without the help of all the
punkeos--David Frum, Michael Gerson, David Brooks, Richard Perle, and my Dearest Daddy."

"Sniffle---my Dearest departed Daddy (RINO Giuliani's foreign policy advisor)
wrote: "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."

"Sob."

"I especially want to thank punkneo Douglas Feith for faking documents on his
home computer so we punkneos could dupe the president."

"Without Doug we would not have been able to transfer trillions of US dollars
into the Mideast, into the pockets of war profiteers, which enabled Richard Perle
to startup an oil business in Iraq with his cut."

Kristol smirked: "Making Iraq safe for Perle's oil business with US tax dollars was truly a noble punkneo effort."

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

AFTERTHOUGHTS The 2008 political entrail readings showed the crucial conservative base stayed home. Too bad the pukes "forget" to tell McC that would be one outcome of the punkneo-RINO bi-partisanship. Be aware that many senior neocons are rank opportunists who squatted in the Repub Party for their selfish stealth purposes-----they are actually former Trotskyites that flew the coop when Stalin executed their hero.

AS FREEPER TADSLOS COGENTLY POSTED : "People forget that candy-ass Kristol, and his crony, metro-sexual Brooks are the original makeover artists for McCain post-2000. They are McC's original groomers and media switch operators.....obsessed with religious cleansing of the party. Kristol at his most smirkiest---urging McCain to fire his 2008 staff, to start all over at the 11th hour, as McC's numbers tanked. Shows how how ill-conceived, advised, equipped and poorly managed McC's campaign was. But then, what else to expect from a Republican candidate made up of neopunks Kristol and Brooks."

Watching Kristol smirking and squirming in his Fox seat election night as McC lost was a consolation prize to this abortion of a losing 2008 election cycle.

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

FRUM'S STUCK ON STUPID Frum endlessly argues that the GOP is a rump party and the only way for it to survive is to religiously cleanse the party and kick so/cons to the curb.

[Liz]

Frum's only political credential worth anything is his brief time as a GWB White House speechwriter. His prescriptions for GOP revival by movement toward the "center" are not realistic - especially considering the current political climate - and his books have met with very little enthusiasm.

No one has yet figured out if the pukeneoes have any visible means of support...... other than infiltrating the US government, putting out agit-prop, incessantly pontificating on foreign policy issues, squatting in, and religiously cleansing the Repub Party, and kicking so/cons to the curb .

Oh wait---I just remembered (snicker)...... Punkneo Perle IS going into the oil business in Iraq. Nice that US tax dollars and the blood of young Americans made the region safe for Perle's business ambitions, wasn't it?

Pukeneos do get paid handsomely to squat in the Repub Party hoping to destroy it from within. (That ain't happening.)

Frum's main occupation is being an ****ole.

[Condor51]

*** "I especially want to thank punkneo Douglas Feith for faking documents on his home computer so we punkneos could dupe the president." ... "Without Doug we would not have been able to transfer trillions of US dollars into the Mideast, into the pockets of war profiteers, which enabled Richard Perle to startup an oil business in Iraq with his cut." ***

Doug Feith should be sitting in a Federal Prison. With Richard Perle as his cell mate.

So if Barry and Eric Holder want to go after Bush Admin officials for 'criminal actions', he should start with those two. The evidence against them is overwhelming and the case is a slam dunk. Condi's testimony alone against Doug Feith would put him away for 20 years. Call her as a 'Hostile Witness' and its game over.

If Feith did forge all those documents, and Perle continuously lie to Rummy, I doubt there would have been an Iraq War. Saddam's UN Violations alone weren't enough 'evidence' to warrant the invasion and the Security Counsel never would have passed resolution 1441.

[Condor51]

oops typo

If Feith did forge all those documents'

should be

If Feith didn't forge ...

[stephenjohnbanker]

BUMP

[Liz]

Feith should be sitting in a Federal Prison w/ Richard Perle as his cell mate. So if Barry and Eric Holder want to go after Bush Admin officials for 'criminal actions', he should start with those two. The evidence against them is overwhelming and the case is a slam dunk.

We can dream-----problem is Rahm is one of "them" (in the closet for now). But he may be ready to "come out" what with the economic situation in Mideast hellholes.

One of Emanuel's proudest moments during his tenure in the Clinton admin was when he choreographed the famous handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat, in the 1993 Rose Garden signing ceremony after the Oslo Peace Accords.

This event touched Emanuel's political sensibilities due to his lfelong personal ties to Israel. Course, no one knows how Emanuel felt when, predictably, war broke out between the "peace partners" shortly thereafter..

Mmmmmmm........can't wait to see Ohaha and Nutandyahoo in $2500 Armani suits on the White House lawn signing yet another (gag) "$500 billion peace accord".......with Rahm beaming in the bgrnd, waiting for his cut.

[justiceseeker93]

Nice that US tax dollars and the blood of young Americans made the region safe for Perle's business ambitions, wasn't it.

I'm sorry, Liz, but that's unfair to Perle, just as the 'Rats' continuous harping on Halliburton was unfair to Dick Cheney.

I don't see the hypocrisy involved in an American official vigorously supporting the effort to overthrow the Saddam regime in Iraq, and then taking advantage of less despotic new order there to pursue a new business venture. If a Dummycrat who opposed the Bush Iraq strategy were to do something similar to that in the new Iraq, we would and should rightfully roast him for for it.

[Liz]

That's unfair to Perle..........I don't see the hypocrisy involved in an American official vigorously supporting the Iraq (invasion), and then taking advantage of less despotic new order there to pursue a new business venture.

My comments "unfair" to Perle? New Order? Where?

In your case, being both glib AND gullible is a dangerous combination.

There are no words to describe the utter vacuity of your comments.

[stephenjohnbanker]

“That’s unfair to Perle..........I don’t see the hypocrisy involved in an American official vigorously supporting the Iraq (invasion), and then taking advantage of less despotic new order there to pursue a new business venture.”

Algore: “Are you against free enterprise?”

When questioned about his partial ownership of 3 companies set up to capitalize on global warming/cap n trade Note the irony?? ;-)

[Liz]

When questioned about his partial ownership of 3 companies set up to capitalize on global warming/cap n trade.....Algore replies: “Are you against free enterprise?” ....... Note the irony??

N-i-c-e example. Cannot miss the irony.

I also observed Gore salivating when he contemplated profits on his plans to capitalize on global warming/cap n trade.

Wish we had a pic of Perle contemplating his oil profits---jerk is probably laughing up his sleeve.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks justiceseeker93.

[stephenjohnbanker]

“Wish we had a pic of Perle contemplating his oil profits-—jerk is probably laughing up his sleeve. “

The neo-cons all scream for our young sons and daughters to go fight overseas. Can you name one prominent one who either fought himself let their kids fight overseas ?

[stephenjohnbanker]

OR let their kids fight overseas....lol

[justiceseeker93]

OK, I retract the phrase "new order" in referring to the current regime and situation in Iraq. It was a poor choice of words and I can see that it can lead to misunderstandings. Still, the current status of Iraq is much better than the status of Iraq under Saddam from the point of view of the US as well as the entire Western world, and I think that a large majority here will stipulate to that.

Many Americans and some foreigners played a positive role in the positive regime change in Iraq, and Perle was among them. That's all I'm crediting him for. And, since conditions have improved there due to the American effort (with a relatively small amount of assistance from the Brits and other allies), I see nothing preposterous for Perle to do this oil thing, unless you can show me that he is engaging in some form of blatantly corrupt activity.

[Liz]

justiceseeker93: " I see nothing preposterous for Perle to do this oil thing, unless you can show me that he is engaging in some form of blatantly corrupt activity."

You forgot to add, "Duh."

[piasa]

The author’s description of tea partiers doesn’t match any I’ve ever met.

[Liz]

The neo-cons all scream for our young sons and daughters to fight overseas. Can you name one prominent one who either fought himself or let their kids fight overseas?

They don't have time to fight (/snic).

They're too busy (a) infiltrating the US government, (2) putting out agit-prop, (3) incessantly pontificating and proselytizing foreign policy issues, (4) religiously cleansing the Repub party, and kicking so/cons to the curb.