Partying Like it's 1976 … or Maybe '50

Checking around the Internet for any reaction to Glenn Reynolds' Havel-for-UN-prez campaign (which he advanced further in the pages of the Wall Street Journal Online yesterday), I came across this Inter Press Service column calling the whole thing a big neo-con scam. Then this paragraph jumped out at me:

Conveniently, Havel now serves as co-chairman of the international wing of the new Committee on the Present Danger (CPD), a neo-conservative-dominated group that believes President George W Bush's "war on terrorism" is the equivalent of "World War IV".

The freakin' Committee on the Present Danger? Havel? Really?

Really. While I was apparently napping, the Cold War star chamber was exhumed by Joe Lieberman, Jon Kyl, James Woolsey and a cast of hawkish all-stars. Scandal quickly ensued, though it apparently passed over. Havel joined in September (follow that link for the sight of Richard Perle praising the Czech ex-president in Prague), agreeing to become international co-chair, along with former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. It's interesting to contemplate that the CPD's previous two incarnations came about when hawks feared that the government and the populace were insufficiently serious about the Grave Threat at hand.

Anyway, regarding Havel's UN candidacy, his health is probably not up to it, and his UN-bashing backers might begin to flinch the more they realize what a committed sovereignty-slashing multi-lateralist he is.