It may be late, but what you wrote makes some sense.
IIRC, Irving Kristol, one of the original/FFs of neo-cons wrote about neo-cons first and it was more or less ignored until recently. Now, the left and the fringe eliments, such as Pat Buchannan, have picked up the term to use as a perjorative.
And, as I'm sure you know, Irving Kristol's use of neocon and was totally different than how it is being used today. As I recall, he wasn't even into marxism and Trotsky that much and rapidly signed on to fighting communism. Would like to find the first written claim that Neocon Trotskyites are running Bush. Bet it comes from ANSWER or other crazies on that side of the aisle