THE FITZGERALD GRIFFIN FOUNDATION E-PACKAGE
                   The Ornery Observer
                    November 23, 2007


THEIR WORST NIGHTMARE
By Paul Gottfried

     The recent endorsement of Rudy by televangelist Pat 
Robertson has turned the former mayor's supporters at 
NATIONAL REVIEW (NR), the NEW YORK POST, and other 
obliging outposts of the neoconservative empire from a 
state of hope to one of outright jubilation. If Lawrence 
Kudlow, NR economics editor, is correct, the nomination 
"has been wrapped up."

     Perhaps political observers such as George Will, 
Rich Lowry, and Bill Kristol can now get on with 
anointing the Republican vice-presidential candidate. One 
might guess from their comments that they have already 
given the nod to Mike Huckabee, the former governor of 
Arkansas who is being played up as a "social 
conservative." This move is advertised as an attempt to 
bestow some kind of balance on the Republican ticket; 
however, as commentator Phyllis Schlafly has noted, his 
effect on conservatism in the state has been profoundly 
negative. Moreover, the erstwhile governor leans 
decidedly leftward on immigration; unlike Rudy, he may 
feel genuine shame about hiding his real views on a 
controversial subject. Huckabee also has the tiresome 
habit of bewailing American racism every time the word 
"black" comes up. One is led to wonder whether he can 
look at anything covered with that color without trying 
to reach out.

     It is hard to see how Huckabee can contribute 
ideological balance to Rudy's blustering presence, except 
possibly for his opposition to abortion. But like Michael 
Gerson, another sensitized Evangelical, Huckabee seems 
unable to express his opinion on any hot social issue 
without going on about slavery and the supposed racist 
intention of some pro-choice liberals. This guy may be a 
Baptist from Arkansas, but he shows some of the same 
rhetorical tics as those displayed by generic liberals 
whom I meet in the Big Apple. Having him on the 
Republican ticket in any case should cause no queasiness 
for the WALL STREET JOURNAL-NR crowd.

     The problem for the neocons trying to come up big in 
the presidential sweepstakes, however, may be the 
curmudgeonly war protester Ron Paul. Despite their 
success with a fading televangelist who now shills for 
the GOP (in 2004, God supposedly spoke to Pat and 
predicted that W would be reelected), the neocons and 
those Republican leaders they have convinced to back Rudy 
for "being good on terror" cannot remove Paul from the 
race. A septuagenarian Texas obstetrician and congressman 
who is now running for the presidency, Paul is very much 
his own man. The neocons' approach to Paul's candidacy 
follows closely their tactics in dealing with the Old 
Right -- generally to ignore him while hinting broadly 
that he may be (surprise!) an "anti-Semite." After all, 
he has used the word "neoconservative" without intending 
to convey a compliment and is against giving foreign aid 
(a policy that may or may not negatively affect Israel).

     This week the left-liberal website Salon noticed the 
prevalence of this effort to ignore or run down Paul in 
the mainstream media. The neocons and their liberal 
talking partners, obviously hoping that Paul and his 
followers will drop off the Earth, have ignored him in 
the expectation that this would happen. To their chagrin, 
it has not.

     In less than a month, according to the most recent 
Marist survey, his polls numbers have risen from 
2 percent to more than 7 percent. Right now Paul is 
running neck and neck with the Baptist preacher from 
Arkansas and only 6 points behind the plummeting John 
McCain. In one day recently, Dr. Paul's staff raised more 
than $4 million dollars on the Internet, a medium that 
the neocons and their talking partners do not effectively 
control. Given the fervor of Paul's following, the 
present ascent of the Texas congressman may continue for 
some time.

     Although he is identified as a libertarian, anti-war 
candidate, Paul's appeal is to the Old Right as well. He 
is a devout Lutheran who opposes abortion and is critical 
of the sloppy immigration policies of the Bush 
administration and its Democratic opposition. He also 
calls himself a Taft Republican, while raging against the 
neocons' foreign policy, as I heard him do at a rally in 
Philadelphia. His staff is honeycombed with 
paleolibertarians and paleoconservatives -- in short with 
people itching to settle scores with the neocon usurpers 
of the American Right. The older members of this group 
have fought and lost wars against the neocons that were 
professionally costly; what they now want more than 
anything else is what the French nationalists called for 
against the Germans after losing the Franco-Prussian War: 
revenge.

     Nobody but a true believer would imagine that Paul 
could win the Republican nomination, which apparently a 
neocon candidate has sown up. What he could do, and is 
likely to achieve if he runs as a third-party candidate, 
is to make sure the neocons lose by pulling in his 
direction a large number of voters who usually support 
the Republicans. That would have the effect of putting 
Hillary into the White House, an outcome that many of 
Paul's followers would accept as the lesser of two evils. 
Such an outcome would not displease those of Paul's 
backers who are above all concerned about not seeing 
Giuliani and his neocon-packed retinue take over the 
government. For neocons at least, what used to be bright 
skies are clouding over.

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Read this column on-line at 
"http://www.sobran.com/fgf/gottfried/2007/pg071123.shtml".

Copyright (c) 2007 by the Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation,
All rights reserved.

Paul Gottfried, Ph.D., is Raffensperger professor of 
Humanities at Elizabethtown College (PA) and a Guggenheim 
recipient. He is an adjunct scholar of the Mises 
Institute and the author of numerous articles and eight 
books including CONSERVATISM IN AMERICA: MAKING SENSE OF 
THE AMERICAN RIGHT (Palgrave-Macmillan, July 2007), THE 
STRANGE DEATH OF MARXISM: THE EUROPEAN LEFT IN THE NEW 
MILLENNIUM (University of Missouri Press, 2005), 
MULTICULTURALISM AND THE POLITICS OF GUILT: TOWARDS A 
SECULAR THEOCRACY (University of Missouri Press, 2002), 
and AFTER LIBERALISM: MASS DEMOCRACY IN THE MANAGERIAL 
STATE (Princeton University Press, 1999).

Contact the Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation at 
FGF@vacoxmail.com to obtain permission to reprint this 
article.