End of the Neocon Century?

Brian Doherty | December 26, 2007

Neocon powerhouses and war die-hards Charles Krauthammer and Bill Kristol both dropped from Time magazine. The standard Bushite American right need not fear they've been routed from the former Luce empire's boundaries though--Ramesh Ponnuru will likely be replacing them.

Comments

The Owner\'s Manual|12.26.07 @ 7:03PM|#

Woodrow Wilson is deeply saddened.

Brandybuck|12.26.07 @ 7:21PM|#

Kristol should go back to hosting awards ceremonies...

|12.26.07 @ 7:32PM|#

Is Ponurru the author of the odious book recommending an alliance of Islamists and Christians against the liberals?

Middle Class Worker|12.26.07 @ 7:36PM|#

"Is Ponurru the author of the odious book recommending an alliance of Islamists and Christians against the liberals?"

That would be the fundie wingnut Dinesh D'Souza.

|12.26.07 @ 7:38PM|#

I wonder what the rationale for this is - commercial? Has neoconservatism become so unpopular that there was a fear that columnists like these were no longer a draw?

What does the Weekly Standard's circulation look like these days?

|12.26.07 @ 7:40PM|#

I'm assuming Ponnuru will at least be able to think outside the "German" box. (Germans know nothing, nothing, nothing... Sgt. Klink) I'm just sterotyping by last names.
Where the hell in the world do "Ponnuru's" hail from anyhow?
Surely a Ponnuru is not so frightening as the pair he/she is replacing.

Ruthless

Madeline Albright|12.26.07 @ 7:46PM|#

joe,

I know they all look alike to you.

Having served in the Clinton administration I really appreciate Time's commitment to quantifiable diversity: one dark skinned East Indian = 2 Jews and a cripple.

|12.26.07 @ 8:00PM|#

Thanks Madeline,
So Ponnuru's an East Indian. Thanks.
Is there anything "funny" about East Indians, as opposed to "normal" midwestern Indians? (I'm a nomal midwestern American for example.) I was thinking of the branch of the Iranian government that has been classified as terrorists? Are they from East Iran or something?
You can't be too careful can you?

Ruthless

Franklin Harris|12.26.07 @ 8:15PM|#

I'm not sure replacing two odious neocons with an equally odious plus stupid neocon is an improvement. The only upside to this is that it could lead to John Debyshire writing more scathing takedowns of Ponnuru's "thought."

Russell|12.26.07 @ 8:34PM|#

We're not out of the north woods yet :
http://adamant.typepad.com/seitz/2007/12/o-neocanada.html

Franklin Harris|12.26.07 @ 9:20PM|#

Russell,

Indeed, if we must fence off one border, it should be the border with Canada, not the border with Mexico. Mexican immigrants build houses and keep the restaurant industry going. Canadians give us awful beer.

Alexander Keith|12.26.07 @ 9:35PM|#

Canadians give us awful beer.

Eh, don't make me go all 1812 on your ass Mr Harris.

(and you do know which country kept you all in fine spirits during your little 'experiment' last century?)

|12.26.07 @ 9:39PM|#

Would a northern border fence have stopped Bryan Addams?

One must ponder...

Tom|12.26.07 @ 9:44PM|#

Who reads Time anymore. I subscribed when they had a 8 week trial for $10 a few months back. After getting the first copy, a totally one-sided diatribe on "global warming", I cancelled.

Madeline Albright|12.26.07 @ 9:45PM|#

A baby seal walks into a bar.....

|12.26.07 @ 9:46PM|#

Don't fence off Canada. If the dollar goes any lower, we'll need to sneak up there for jobs.

Ali|12.26.07 @ 9:49PM|#

Don't fence off Canada. If the dollar goes any lower, we'll need to sneak up there for jobs.

May be Canada should start considering building a wall.

Franklin Harris|12.26.07 @ 9:55PM|#

(and you do know which country kept you all in fine spirits during your little 'experiment' last century?)

Canadian whiskey is all well and good, but Moosehead is a mortal sin against beer.

Bhh|12.26.07 @ 10:02PM|#

Out with the neocons, in with the theocons.

I've seen Ponnuru on C-Span a couple times. Dude needs a voice coach. Sounds like Neil Sedaka.

alan|12.26.07 @ 10:11PM|#

Mexican immigrants build houses and keep the restaurant industry going. Canadians give us awful beer.

They keep the good stuff, and send us the watered down lagers that our government requires of them.

However, Bryan Adams, Canada. Whatever did we do to you?

Don't fence off Canada. If the dollar goes any lower, we'll need to sneak up there for jobs.

We should wait 'til springtime, when Erie thaws to swim across. I know some farmers in BC if you need a recommendation. If you are good with a water spray bottle and don't mind staying in doors in a subterranean basement, it should be a piece of cake.

|12.26.07 @ 10:44PM|#

"After getting the first copy, a totally one-sided diatribe on "global warming", I cancelled."

Reason is pretty one-sided, too.

Russell|12.26.07 @ 11:33PM|#

Franklin

With any luck, the neoConquistadores will head off the neoCans at the straits of Juan De Fuca

|12.26.07 @ 11:45PM|#

>>Is there anything "funny" about East Indians, as opposed to "normal" midwestern Indians?

|12.26.07 @ 11:46PM|#

They have a New Jersey accent...

Episiarch|12.27.07 @ 8:49AM|#

Eh, don't make me go all 1812 on your ass Mr Harris.

(and you do know which country kept you all in fine spirits during your little 'experiment' last century?)

Oh for fucks sake don't pull the "we burned down the White House" shit. It makes you look like a fucking idiot.

And don't forget, you also had the same stupid "experiment". The only difference was that your government was cynical enough to allow you to still produce booze to sell to us. You couldn't drink it, but you could make it.

Episiarch|12.27.07 @ 8:50AM|#

Krauthammer is the worst of the worst. He's a warmongering neocon asshole who, on top of it, is completely against gun ownership. He doesn't even have the one positive feature of a right-winger (support for the 2nd Amendment).

|12.27.07 @ 8:51AM|#

joe,

I know they all look alike to you.

Yeah, the ill-fitting suits, the short hair, the fanatical gleam in the eye, the arrogant sneer - I really do have trouble telling National Review writers apart.

Episiarch|12.27.07 @ 9:10AM|#

Yeah, the ill-fitting suits, the short hair, the fanatical gleam in the eye, the arrogant sneer

joe, you're wrong. Their suits actually fit very well. Everybody in the VRWC gets top-notch suits from Books Brothers. The reason that you can tell I'm not in the VRWC is that my suits are from Hugo Boss, via Bloomingdales. VRWC dudes shop at Barney's.

|12.27.07 @ 9:30AM|#

D'Souza doesn't write for NR, joe. He is funny and foreign though!

x,y|12.27.07 @ 9:31AM|#

Derb's right: The first part of Party of Death is excellent and (with a few exceptions) pretty much above reproach. The rest is garbled trash.

But what kills me is that Ponnuru writes a book called PARTY OF DEATH and doesn't discuss capital punishment or war. For shame.

ed|12.27.07 @ 9:49AM|#

Really? It's the end of the "Neocons"? What catchy, all-encompassing name, pray tell, will their successors be labeled with? Anything in the works? I want to be prepared.

|12.27.07 @ 9:55AM|#

What does this say about the silencing of dissent that is supposed to be so rampant under the illegitimate Bushitler regime?

squarooticus|12.27.07 @ 10:05AM|#

Episarch:

Krauthammer is the worst of the worst. He's a warmongering neocon asshole who, on top of it, is completely against gun ownership. He doesn't even have the one positive feature of a right-winger (support for the 2nd Amendment).

Just to be fair, can you cite an example of this? I am no Krauthammer lover, but a simple Google search reveals a mostly pro-gun sentiment in the following column:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/19/AR2007041902543.html

|12.27.07 @ 10:07AM|#

"Krauthammer is the worst of the worst. He's a warmongering neocon asshole who, on top of it, is completely against gun ownership. He doesn't even have the one positive feature of a right-winger (support for the 2nd Amendment)."

Dunno about the gun part, but the warmongering asshole part is dead on. Krauthammer's motto is: if it offends Israel, kill it. With US aid of course. He could give a shit about any other issue.

|12.27.07 @ 10:09AM|#

"But what kills me is that Ponnuru writes a book called PARTY OF DEATH and doesn't discuss capital punishment or war. For shame."
Hey, unfair. The NR writers may seem inconsistent, but look closer. They are consistent in their embarrassingly syncophantic apologetics for the GOP.

|12.27.07 @ 10:27AM|#

Josh,

D'Souza is a semi-regular contributor to NRO. His nasty little piece positing an alliance between Christian and Muslim conservatives appeared as an article in that mag before he fleshed it out to book-length.

Episiarch,

Good point about the suits. And I'm pretty sure that Jonah Goldberg is the fat one.

ed,

I'm pretty sure they'll just back to being "conservatives," and try to put that whole ugly "neo-" episode behind them.

RC,

What does the hiring of Ramesh Ponurru say about the squashing of dissent? Probably the same thing as Karl Rove's hiring at Newsweek: nothing.

x,y|12.27.07 @ 10:34AM|#

Hey, unfair. The NR writers may seem inconsistent, but look closer. They are consistent in their embarrassingly syncophantic apologetics for the GOP.

Agree; I suppose it depends on what type of consistency you're looking for :)

|12.27.07 @ 10:38AM|#

Is Time still in business? I thought it went the way of Life and Look. Next you will be telling me there is still a 6 o'clock network news cast.

ed|12.27.07 @ 10:42AM|#

TimeWeek has lots of pretty graphics and pictures and things now. You can "read" the whole thing while waiting for your doctor who's running late again.

Episiarch|12.27.07 @ 11:09AM|#

Just to be fair, can you cite an example of this?

"Ultimately, a civilized society must disarm its citizenry if it is to have a modicum of domestic tranquility of the kind enjoyed by sister democracies such as Canada and Britain. Given the frontier history and individualist ideology of the United States, however, this will not come easily. It certainly cannot be done radically. It will probably take one, maybe two generations. It might be 50 years before the United States gets to where Britain is today. Passing a law like the assault weapons ban is a symbolic - purely symbolic - move in that direction. Its only real justification is not to reduce crime but to desensitize the public to the regulation of weapons in preparation for their ultimate confiscation."

Charles Krauthammer
"Disarm the Citizenry,"
Washington Post, Apr. 5, 1996

|12.27.07 @ 11:27AM|#

Don't fence off Canada. I happen to like a few of their exports: Rush, Cannabis Culture magazine and the now almost forgotten band "Mahogany Rush" .

But yeah. The beer sucks.

|12.27.07 @ 12:35PM|#

To be fair to National Review, they were criticizing the GOP for their spending and calling for a troop surge years before the Bush adminstration and the party as a whole came around.