Neocon admiration festival

If you feel there’s too much negativity in our society, you can find a corrective at Powerline, a website that regularly expresses gushing admiration for the outstanding conservative figures of our day, men such as … David Brooks. Here (in mid-November) Paul of Powerline gushingly admires Brooks for, uh, gushingly admiring Sen. McCain:

“Character is destiny”

David Brooks, the remarkably insightful author and New York Times columnist, was a fellow passenger on the Straight Talk Express on Saturday. Here is David’s report in which he concludes:

Everyone will make their own political choices, and you might plausibly argue that the qualities John McCain possesses are not the ones the country now requires. But character is destiny, and you will never persuade me that he is not among the finest of men.

Posted by Paul at 9:57 AM | Permalink

I want to say right here that I think it’s very admirable of Paul to admire Brooks for admiring McCain.

And here’s more admiration for the powerful and eminent, also from Paul of Powerline:

Chief Justice Roberts delivered the Barbara K. Olson lecture to the Federalist Society this evening. His topic was the Supreme Court appointments of James Madison.

It was the perfect topic, if you think about it. Roberts obviously loves history (especially, I suspect, Supreme Court history), and the topic kept him well clear of direct commentary on the legal-political issues of today. As for the Federalist Society, it dotes on the Founding Fathers and above all James Madison, whose image appears on the Society’s tie. For my part, as witty and engaging as Roberts is, I’m pretty sure I’d enjoy hearing him speak about anything.

Now I’m second to none in my admiration for the Founding Fathers, but really, is doting the correct attitude to take toward them, as though they were one’s spouse or child? For the Groupie School of American Conservatism, the answer is yes. I’m telling you, I never expected to hear an intelligent, middle-aged man proudly tell the world that he would enjoy hearing a certain public man speak about anything.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 02, 2007 02:21 PM | Send