Kesher Talk

Using the word neo-conservative as an anti-Semitic slur? I just caught the tail end of MSNBC's Hardball, and I saw former Republican Congressman Rep. Joe Scarborough and The Nation publisher and wunderditz Katrina Vander Huevel debating the new book on Bush's presidency out by his former speechwriter and current NRO contributor David Frum.

I caught Scarborough bashing Frum and his fellow "neo-conservatives" as (and I'm paraphrasing here) "intellectuals that are never loyal to a Republican president. These guys called Reagan an idiot, Ford stupid, they're as disloyal as everyone on the left." Now, I haven't read Frum's book and other than his daily columns and recent television appearances, I know little about the guy. But Frum is no neo-conservative -- if the word is defined as a former liberal who has embraced the conservative movement. Charles Krauthammer, Bill Bennett and Irving Kristol are three prominent neocons. Frum isn't and never has been.

David Frum always has been a conservative Republican. His formative years were during the Reagan era, after the Democratic party veered to the left in presidential elections. So what else is left by Scarborough's definition? I know little about Frum and even less about Scarborough, but the attack seemed to be targeted at Jewish conservatives. In what other context would Scarborough be using the word neo-con?

Max Boot of the WSJ wrote a terrific little piece about how neo-conservatism really doesn't mean anything today. Boot concluded that most neo-cons commonly disdain both an isolationist foreign policy and an automatic aversion to any government. Indeed, Bush's policies are essentially neo-conservative. He wants to force regime change in Iraq, and his compassionate conservatism allows room for certain government-run programs: witness faith-based charity.

So what was Scarborough's point in labeling Frum as a neo-con? Here's what Boot wrote in his column:

When Buchananites toss around "neoconservative" -- and cite names like Wolfowitz and Cohen -- it sometimes sounds as if what they really mean is "Jewish conservative." This is a malicious slur on two levels. First, many of the leading neocons aren't Jewish; Jeane Kirkpatrick, Bill Bennett, Father John Neuhaus and Michael Novak aren't exactly menorah lighters. Second, support for Israel -- a key tenet of neoconservatism -- is hardly confined to Jews; its strongest constituency in America happens to be among evangelical Christians.

Frankly, I think Scarborough's comment was anti-Semitic; the same type of verbal miscue that Trent Lott made when speaking at Strom's 100th birthday. It's fine to bash Frum individually as a opportunity-seeking, disgruntled former employee who was looking to cut a book deal while being disloyal to his former boss. (Then again, Frum's book The Right Man was very praiseworthy of Bush -- witness the title -- so I don't agree.) But to use this to paint "neoconservatives" as disloyal through the ages sounds like an anti-Jewish canard to me. Shame on Scarborough.

Thoughts?

posted by Josh @ 1/07/2003 11:08:26 PM