Posted on 07/31/2007 3:40:13 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The neoconservatives are not riding high these days. The Iraq War--their number-one cause--is a failure, and the public has turned on the war, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, their top man in the Administration. Meanwhile, the so-called foreign policy realists appear to have the upper hand against the Administration's dwindling neocon cell in many internal policy squabbles. But the neocons are faring rather well when it comes to the presidential race. The leading GOP contenders are all die-hard fans of the war. And the newest star in the show--Fred Thompson, the former Republican senator from Tennessee, onetime lobbyist and TV actor who has all but officially announced his candidacy--might be the most neoconnish of all.
With gusto, Thompson embraced the second-favorite crusade of the neocons: Scooter Libby. For them, Libby has been a martyr of near-religious significance. Thompson, a prominent member of the Libby defense fund, called for Bush to pardon the former Cheney chief of staff. While doing so, Thompson repeatedly misstated core facts of the CIA leak case. Deriding special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, Thompson, who played a prosecutor on Law & Order, insisted that Valerie Plame Wilson was not covered by the Intelligence Identities Protection Act--though indeed she was. Following the neocon tradition of accusing the CIA of betraying national security interests, Thompson essentially charged that the agency and the Justice Department had conspired to set Libby up. He claimed that the CIA sent a known Democratic partisan--former Ambassador Joseph Wilson--to Niger and that upon his return Wilson "blasted" the Bush Administration. (Wilson, a career diplomat, was no partisan at the time of his 2002 trip, and he did not "blast" the Administration until nearly a year and a half after his mission.) No other GOP candidate was as true to the Libby cause as Thompson, who heartily applauded Bush's commutation of Libby's prison sentence.
In spirit, Thompson was a member of the Libby Lobby before it even existed--as a fierce advocate for a US invasion of Iraq. In October 2002, during his last months as a senator, Thompson voted for the measure authorizing the use of force. At the time, he was pitching the familiar argument: Saddam Hussein was packing WMDs, about to get nukes and in cahoots with Al Qaeda. He declared on CNN, "I don't want to get in too deeply, in terms of what the CIA has told the intelligence community, but...Director Tenet pointed out in great detail the extent to which Saddam had moved toward cooperation with Al Qaeda." Actually, Tenet had not done that. The CIA chief had publicly referred to "reporting of senior level contacts" between Al Qaeda and Baghdad without providing details (the CIA's analysts determined there was no definitive evidence linking Saddam and Osama bin Laden operationally). But for the neocons, the purported Al Qaeda connection was an article of faith, and Thompson was pushing this holy writ, hinting that he (as an intelligence committee member) knew more than he could openly say. Weeks ago, Thompson said that before the invasion the Administration had merely claimed that "there was clearly contact and a relationship [between Al Qaeda and Saddam's regime], but no one knew exactly what it meant." That was not how he depicted it in 2002.
After leaving the Senate in early 2003, Thompson did his bit for the war effort. He filmed an ad for a conservative group that supported the coming invasion. In it he stood before an American flag and drawled, "When people ask, What has Saddam done to us? I ask, What had the 9/11 hijackers done to us before 9/11?" When UN inspectors found no evidence that Saddam was developing nuclear weapons, Thompson pooh-poohed their work. He argued, like a neocon, that the United States, as the lone superpower, had to be willing to use force beyond immediate self-defense to protect itself and its interests.
Thompson has other neocon tics. Earlier this year, after the bipartisan Iraq Study Group had recommended a diplomatic initiative that would include attempts to negotiate with Iran and Syria, he cheered Bush for not doing so. He has blasted the UN and bashed France. ("We're...hopeful that, eventually, our ostrich-headed allies will realize there's a world war going on out there, and they need to pick a side.") He has hailed progress in Iraq. ("In Iraq, the healthcare and education statistics are even better. There are, of course, still many areas of life that need to improve...but we're moving in the right direction.")
Thompson has mostly been a loyal conservative, though as a senator he peeved right-wingers by supporting campaign finance reform and by voting for only one of the two impeachment counts against Bill Clinton. These days, he wants to extend Bush's tax cuts for the well-to-do. He calls for tort "reform." He favors the death penalty. He says he's opposed to abortion rights (although in 1991 he helped lobby for an abortion rights outfit and declared in 1994 he was opposed to criminalizing abortion), and he recently mocked those concerned about global warming.
Neocons have many good choices among GOP presidential wannabes. Senator John McCain has hung tight on the war. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has outdone Cheney by calling for doubling the size of the Guantánamo prison. And former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has loaded his campaign with pro-Israel hawks, including godfather of the neocons Norman Podhoretz, who advocates attacking Iran. But Thompson has a strong claim on the neoconservative heart. If he ends up in the White House, the neocons will rise again.
I think they are scared.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Hurry, David, hurry, before we win this thing. I will be pleased to apply the egg to your face myself.
This could have easily been written in a Iranian newspaper.
David Corn would scare a hyena off a gut heap.
Neo-con is the latest undefined term that liberals love to try to slime conservatives with. All it means is you support Isreal and our war on terror. Total BS lable that meant something completely different prior to this.
Almost everything Corn “accuses” Fred of is something I hope that Fred actually is for or did! I like Mitt Romney’s idea of doubling the size of Guantánamo Bay prison.
Wait, why the hatred for Thompson amongst leftist and defeatists? Didnt Rasmussen just recently publish a poll showing even pretty boy Edwards soundly defeating Thompson? Can’t we beleive what we read with these people???
This screed, underneath the snorting and frothing, has a sad, nostalgic air, doesn't it?—as the reports come filtering back, even from Brookings, that the Surge is working, and public support here is actually gaining.
He writes like a man sipping the last glass from a fine bottle of red that he really enjoyed.
I imagine he wasn’t happy reading the NY Times yesterday.
Corn wouldn’t know a neocon if it bit him in the ass. Fred has come out against many of the neocons biggest ideas. neocons are big government (but for conservative ends) guys and Fred is a small government guy BIG TIME.
Whats a NeoCon?
I am having a good chuckle just visualizing that.
One of the words leftists use to show their contempt for a person.
LLS
LLS
“Can’t we beleive what we read with these people???”
That’s be a big negatory goodbuddy...
LLS
This country can not have too many Neocons! JMHO
“Whats a NeoCon?”
Someone in a Rolling Stones song.
LLS
So, Corn is calling Fred a “JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” ?
Neoconservatism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wonder who Corn is trying to fool?
He's red... thru and thru.
In terms of Thompson, explained quite well here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1808671/posts
Many thanks to the author for putting this in the first sentences. It alerted me that I needn't waste my time reading anything else he writes.
What comes out of a donkey’s butt?
Corn! Corn! Corn!
Guess he didn't get the memo.
Well here you are, showing up on Fred threads to support the position of......David Corn.
Do you even realize how ridiculous you appear?
They're not "liberals." Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were "Liberals." (Ask Thomas Sowell, if you don't believe me.)
David Corn is a "Neo-prog."
I see Hillary fading soon. Couple that with the fact that Silky does the best in head to head matchups against Republicans and I think we are in for a Silky/Hussein ticket. That would be extremely beatable. The girly man and the empty suit.
What the heck is a neocon and why does this guy lie?
Korn should be in prison for outing CIA agent Valerie Plame. Whatever Libby got Korn should get double.
One the things I like so much about Fred Thompson - he scares the crap out of the lefties.
Amen brother!
LLS
Corn is gayer than Richard Simmons in a neon pink Turkey Costume..
No she’s not! She pointed to ANOTHER source stating the obvious. FT is in the same mold as all the other CFR candidates. Globalist NeoCon is a fair description.
A neo-con in todays terms is a Republican who does not want Israel to be wiped off the face of the globe.
LOL! You have a way with words, my friend. :)
“Not that there’s anything wrong with that!” LOL
No, this isn’t a hit piece.
“Neocon” is a term of . . . . . uh, . . . AFFECTION!!
(Yeah, THAT’S it!!)
And, uh . . . . . . . . it means that the leftists are uh, . . . . . . looking FORWARD to a um . . . . . SPIRITED and OPEN debate of the issues!!!
(THAT should be enough to appease those filthy neocons on the right!!)
/sarc
Who was it who said that a neoconservative was a liberal with a teenage daughter?
Well OK then. Since somebody named Basil Harrington (??!) and especially David Corn say it, that must make it 100% true.
Whatever happened to freepers questioning sources? Apparently some just crossed the line that says they’ll side up with any author who furthers their own perspective or candidate bias. Regardless of how little known or even leftist that author is.
Do you get a warm fuzzy feeling from all the “truth” that’s printed at the NY Times as well?
LOL!
That’s like: “A conservative is a liberal that’s been mugged”.
they are willing to believe any source that supports their agenda, that much has become clear.
That's because Pontious Fitzfong tried to sacrifice him for Rove/Cheney/Bush's "sins".
Sure seems like it. At this point we all might as well be reading the Washington Post and dutifully swallowing the pablum.
Good morning, btw.
:^)
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