Things to Read: Conservative Watch Edition
By Kay Steiger - Dec 17th, 2008 at 4:15 pmOver at Campus Progress this week we have two pieces by Pushback writers. The first is by Minipundit-extraordinaire Dylan Matthews. He makes the case against Robert Gates continuing on as secretary of defense:
A career CIA official, Gates first rose to national prominence as deputy CIA director under the Reagan administration and deputy director of central intelligence under George H.W. Bush. It was in these roles that he was involved in the Iran-Contra scandal, in which the administration illegally sold arms to Iran to fund right-wing guerillas in Nicaragua. While ultimately not indicted, Gates was rigorously investigated by Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh at the time, and it appears he misinformed Walsh about when he became aware of the plot. After an administration characterized by disregard for the rule of law, appointing someone connected to the tawdry Iran-contra affair hardly signals real change.
Gates as also staked out a consistently hawkish posture prior to his most recent appointment as defense secretary. In 1984, he called for air raids on Nicaragua to punish the leftist Sandinista government and aid the Contra rebels, a position to the right even of the Iran-Contra conspirators. In 1994, he proposed bombing North Korea to destroy its nuclear facilities. Most saliently, in 2003 he argued in a speech to the Houston Forum for an invasion of Iraq. Especially given Obama’s stated commitment to opening negotiations with hostile regimes, appointing someone so favorably disposed to using force in such circumstances is a curious choice.
The second is by Ned Resnikoff, and it discusses the bankrupt nature of conservative intellectualism, now that they’re pushing out conservatives that are interested in changing direction:
The conservative establishment doesn’t take challenges to its orthodoxy lightly, and internal debate tends to be squashed where it should be encouraged. Just look at the case of the National Review, which recently pushed out Christopher Buckley (son of conservative movement grandfather William F. Buckley, Jr.) and David Frum; the former for endorsing Obama in The Daily Beast, and the latter for having the temerity to suggest that Sarah Palin was an “irresponsible” choice for the bottom of the Republican ticket.
Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh castigated so-called “moderate Republicans” who didn’t adhere unerringly to the party line, and the folks at RedState launched Operation Leper, a concerted effort to freeze out of the Republican establishment any McCain staffers who criticized Palin.
Go ahead and read our latest on Campus Progress here.
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