jackiedoherty.org

Over at the Huffington Post, Nora Ephron has written an amusing and insightful post about Bill Kristol, which caused me to remember that about 5 or so years ago I was wondering what a Neo-Con was. The term had started popping up here and there, but I was never really sure who they were, so deep in the shadows had they been operating. Then, in 2004, I was shocked to discover that my Libertarian Father was going to vote Republican. I soon traced the culpirt behind his unbelievable defection from longheld beliefs about the shortcomings of both parties – he had been reading The Weekly Standard, where editor Bill Kristol has carried the banner of the neo-conservatives into the limelight. It was he who, with Cheney and David Brooks, like a trio of Frankensteins, patched together the new Republican party from fear and bits of normally opposing ideologies creating a monster with the head of George W. Bush. (This clever metaphor is from Stephen Colbert). Now that the monster has been running amok and the pieces falling away, Bill Kristol continues to write his column in the New York Times and appear on John Stewart’s show to make less and less plausible arguments for his hawkish positions. Nora Ephron highlights Kristol’s role in getting us into Iraq, but also talks about how good it is to have him out in the open – on liberal talk shows and writing for the Times. She hopes as I do that he will continue these activities, where he can be watched. In the meantime, my Dad’s gone back to voting Libertarian.