Then, to the University Club for a Schvitz and a Nice Cigar
Via Gene Healy, here's the summary from ex-socialist Joshua Muravchick's roadmap to neocon rehabilitation, called "Operation Comeback," in the latest issue of Foreign Policy:
Neoconservatives have the president's ear, but they also have lots of baggage. To stay relevant, they must admit mistakes, embrace public diplomacy, and start making the case for bombing Iran.
Whoa! He seems to have left out the part about "taking some time to reevalute everything we stand for, given the full-on clusterfuck we caused in Iraq." Unless that's all included under "baggage."
The article itself says neoconservative mistakes amount to little more than poor packaging. No problems with the the ideas themselves, mind you, or in what has actually happened when the U.S. has attempted to execute them. Just bad PR.
I like Healy's sum:
Wasn't this the movement that once styled itself as "liberals mugged by reality"? Somewhere along the line they really learned how to fight back.
The article concludes with an appeal to recruit Joe Lieberman to carry the neocon banner in '08.