Bill Kristol has been making trouble in DC for Republicans, particularly the Bush family, since 1988.
He personally advised Dan Quayle to make the "Murphy Brown speech" and also to make a speech in the middle of the 1992 campaign distancing himself from the first President Bush on foreign policy. James Baker wouldn't let Kristol participate in campaign strategy meetings because he leaked everything to the press.
When it became obvious that Governor Bush was going to be running for the presidency, Kristol wrote several articles saying that Bush couldn't win, and said that the ONLY person who could defeat Gore was COLIN POWELL! He pushed Powell until it became obvious that Powell wasn't going to run, and then backed McCain.
When McCain lost, Kristol spent all summer and fall of 2000 trashing every speech and campaign appearance Bush made. On election night, his possum grin increased as the Bush lead grew smaller. During the Florida recount, he constantly trashed the court strategy of Baker and was always pessimistic.
When Gore finally conceded, Kristol remained positive for about 45 days, until it became obvious that this Bush wasn't going to hire him any more than the first Bush would.
So, we got the trashing of Colin Powell (his former favorite) in an article called "Our Profound National Humiliation"...about the fact that we got the crew of that spy plane back from China without gunfire.
I also am convinced Kristol was involved in the Jeffords defection, based on the fact that he had a "source" who let him scoop everyone else about Jeffords. (Someone who was a loyal conservative, if not Republican, might have warned the white House, but I digress). Kristol sat there on television with this big grin about Jeffords jumping ship. Later I find out that the reason Jeffords left was because he was convinced the White House was going to drop the dairy subsidy, something they had never intended to do! Now where would Jeffords have gotten that idea? Since Kristol HAD to have been talking to Jeffords (because only 3 people knew of the defection, Daschle, Jeffords, and a democrat go-between senator) I believe that Kristol was the one who told Jeffords that. I can't prove it, but every time I think of his evil smile when telling Brit Hume of his scoop, I have no doubt.
Kristol was also reported as continuing to meet with McCain's staffers well into 2001, and I don't think they were playing tiddlywinks...probably hatching the CFR plot.
So how you can say that Kristol doesn't wish any harm to come to this administration, I don't know. Even when Kristol is on Bush's side (War in Irag) I believe it is simply a coincidence. You will note that Kristol has also been pushing for Rumsfeld's resignation as well.
Yeah, Bill Kristol, loyal conservative and Bush supporter. HAHAHAA!
Punditry is the perfect career those who were once connected and are now the periphery. It's the perfect set-up. You can be both the unnamed source close to the administration or investigation and, at the same time, the brilliant analyst who comments on the info provided by the source. That gives a small story legs, then more media starts citing the stories, they start citing each other, and voila, a single wishful thought or musing, initiated purely for self-serving career reasons, has mushroomed into "consensus" or "common knowledge." An informational Ponzi scheme. Kristol, imho, has a dog in this hunt.
So he didn't want GW to be president (no secret). It does not mean he wants the administration disgraced by scandal. It wouldn't be good for Republicans of ANY stripe. For the record, I originally said he doesn't want the Bush adminstration to "go down," not that he didn't want any harm to come it.
I suggest you gather more evidence to support your Jeffords theory. Grins on television just doesn't cut it.
Kristol is and will continue to remain one of the brightest minds in the conservative movement.
Wow, interesting points! You've followed Kristol's recent career more closely than I can bear to follow ANYONE in punditry or media.... :^) What you say does all sound quite plausible to me, but I sure don't claim to know what Kristol knew and when he knew it.... I do think his current gloom and doom on the WH seems mentally unbalanced and premature, unless he really does know what's going on inside the SP and GJ, and I don't see how anyone in the media knows that - Fitzgerald seems to have kept the lid on very tight and the only discussions seem to come from anonymous attorneys associated with various witnesses who want to spin matters their way.
I don't think, in general, the extent of the GJ's witness list, numbers of junior WH staffers testifying, or the thoroughness of Fitzgerald's questioning of witnesses indicates anything about whether indictments will be issued against anyone in the WH -- from all we really KNOW so far, Fitzgerald is just doing what any SP would have to do to perform a thorough investigation (although I sure would like to know whether he has had sleazeball people like Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame, and David Corn before the GJ!!!). I hope that the GJ closes up shop with no indictments for the WH, and that the SP then makes a referral to the Dept. of Justice to investigate and indict the cabal of current and ex-CIA people around Pflame/Wilson who concocted this whole farcical scandal in the first place!!