Pat Buchanan is HELPING the neocons

[Cocoa]

one of the neocons' favorite defenses of themselves is to cry antisemitism agains anyone who criticizes them. I've heard it from Perle, Kristol, all of them. David Brooks even wrote that the very word neocon is antisemitic, later saying lamely that it was just a joke.

As someone who loathes the neocons and believes they must be held accountable, this cynical defense of theirs burns me up.

And so when I hear people here at DU laud Pat Buchanan for his attacks on the neocons, it doubly burns me up, because all Buchanan does is prove the neocons' false antisemitism claims to be true.

This is possibly deliberate on Buchanan's part. Is everyone aware that Buchanan is supporting Bush in this election? Does that make you wonder if he is at all sincere?

http://slate.msn.com/id/2106499/

Pat Buchanan has achieved what I never would have thought possible. He has created sympathy for Richard Perle, the belligerent Iraq hawk ,aspiring litigant , expense-account jockey, and best pal a guy ever had on Hollinger International's Executive Committee. Buchanan managed this feat by tossing an anti-Semitic slur Perle's way in his new book, Where the Right Went Wrong. It hasn't gotten much pickup yet; Jacob Heilbrunn, a Los Angeles Times editorial writer, flagged it on Aug. 29, and Michael Kazin mentions it in the Sept. 12 New York Times Book Review. But I suspect it will create yet another hue and cry about Buchanan's animosity toward Jews, which is getting harder and harder to explain away.

Let's turn to page 42 of Where the Right Went Wrong. In a passage introducing the group of Iraq hawks who called themselves "the Vulcans," Buchanan observes that the best known members
were Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle. Perle's depiction of his delight at first meeting the future president reads like Fagin relating his initial encounter with the young Oliver Twist.

Buchanan is trying to evoke, humorously, the con artist's delight at finding an innocent to corrupt. But Fagin is second only to Shylock as the most famously anti-Semitic portrayal of a Jew to be found in English literature. Scholars often argue that, as characters in The Merchant of Venice and Oliver Twist, respectively, Shylock and Fagin possess human qualities that transcend the ugly stereotype of the grasping Jew. But nobody would dispute that any comparison between Fagin and an actual, living Jew—particularly one made by a writer (Buchanan) who has more than once been called anti-Semitic—is, well, anti-Semitic.

more...

[necso]

1. "This is possibly deliberate on Buchanan's part"

Possibly?

[Domitan]

2. Buchanan may be a grade A asshole

but his intentions are definitely not to enable the neocons. He has been bitterly opposed to them for years. I believe that Buchanan is sincere, but at the same time, a sincere asshole. His being a sincere asshole can work against him as others can use his nasty side against him and his legitimate points.

[necso]

4. Of course,

one must look carefully at how Pat defines the neo-cons!

[Diogenes2]

5. Best thing Buchanan's done

is masterminding the American Conservative magazine... Why? For the anti-Bush covers. I'm a bookseller, & the frequent pictorial anti-Bush covers are perfect to place in the front row of the news magazine tier...(a) to demonstrate balance: it says Conservative right on the cover, & (b) it criticizes Bush!

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mreh]

3. He is now on EWTN and is saying Iraq was wrong and

that the pre-emptive doctrine is wrong. That under * we are now like the Roman empire before its fall. He said * should have isolated the terraists in Afghanistan. How is that supporting the neo-cons?

On edit: When asked for a definition of neo-cons, Buchanan just said they were cross dressers, pretending to be one thing when in fact, they were another. They are frauds -- only wanting war and pretending to be of faith.

[htuttle]

6. Fagin was supposed to be Jewish?

Guess I missed that by watching the movie instead of reading the book.

Learn somethin' every day.

[JohnKleeb]

15. yes

If you read the book, Dickens often refers to him as the Jew.

[napi21]

7. Buchanan is NOT supporting Shrub this year! He said that on

Hardball last week! Chris asked him point blank if he wasn't supporting Shrub, who was he going to vote for, and he answered the Constitution Party candidate! He did say his name, but since I never heard it before, I don't remember it. His first answer was the candidates name, and even Chris said, WHO??? Pat added, you know, the Constitution Party candidate.

[seventhson]

11. That is actually great news in some ways

but I guess this subject is kinda too hot to handle...


I would love to have few Margaritas w/Cocoa one day, though.

Or maybe a couple IPA's (India Pale Ales)

[sangh0]

12. Buchanan is NOT blaming Bush* for Iraq, either

Pat saves his contempt for the Jews in Bush*'s admin. It seems those sneaky Jews tricked Bush* into invading.

[AntiCoup2K4]

14. Well it wasn't so much that they tricked Junior as it was

...He was an empty headed empty suit for their agenda from day one. However, the disctinction must be made between "The Jews" and "The Piece of Shit Double Agent Likud Employed Neocon Traitors". PNAC is the latter category.

[seventhson]

8. I have no idea whether you are right or wrong on this issue (I haven't

raed any of his writings on this subject)


however to blame Jews for Bush and implying they corrupted him is disinformation at its height (as well as being antiSemitic).

The Bush's came out of a severely antiSemitic background and their financing of Hitler is demonic and antiChrist-like to say the least.

But the neocon Likudniks have formed an alliance with the Nazi-like right (and with those with historic ties to Hitler). For Buchanan to point out the insanoty of this sellout (not to Israel or to the Jews but to the fascist Likudniks) IS the right thing to do.

If Buchanan goes about it in a way to bolster Bush in the eyes of pro-Sharon or fence-sitting Jews, by turning the truth of it into a caricature of Jews in an antiSemitic way, then Cocoa is right.

I reserve my opinion on this though, until I actually READ what Buchanan says.

The right-wing Likudniks in this administration have LOTS of pull and it is detrimental to US (and Israeli) interests.

Anyone who follows politics in Israel (and I have been there and follow it pretty closely) know that there is a lot of dirty stuff going on. The murder of Rabin and the money scandals being just the tip of the iceberg with nuke deals and drugs and blackops for hire providing a lot of the meat and potatoes of Israeli right wing politics and money. The left barely haS a chance to make peace under these circumatances where war benefits a small handful of crooks in Likud.

Bush and Sharon and the Saudi alliances make the Jewish neocons a very formidable driving force in this administration. But ultimately it is the BUSH agenda which controls. It is all about corruption and has nothing to do with religion or idealogy (except perhaps the often overriding notion that the expression "Never Again" justifies any and all means by, in the case of the neocons and their fundamentalist bedmates, a few who want to line their pockets to the detriment of the Israeli people and the rest of us).

[seventhson]

10. thoughts?

nt

[wrate]

13. The anti-semitic argument is Jew. They have always played the victim.

Always. So it's not a Neocon original in that sense. And Not all Neocons are Jews.

Pat is very intelligent in that he criticizes Bush without criticizing him directly. He criticizes his brain aka the Neocons. So the freepers don't seem to mind and he is listened to.

IMHO, It is very interesting to see a Republican Icon showing this type of dissent about the Bush Administration. I hope it is representative of how a good number of Republicans feel about Bush.