Did the Neocons Nuke McCain?
9 November 2008Most observers probably think that, having dragged the U.S. into a useless and bankrupting war in Iraq, after which on e of their own pleaded guilty to spying for Israel against the U.S. while working at the Pentagon, thought maybe they had all just disappeared, perhaps in shame.
After all, they certainly became invisible in Pentagon ranks, with everyone from Richard Perle to Paul Wolfowitz and Don Rumsfeld (and Paul Feith, and —) just evaporating from the roster overnight.
Well, it turns out they’ve been busy. It would appear that the sinking ship was no longer attractive, compared to John McCain’s campaign.
As you know, Senator Joe Lieberman spent last year campaigning with McCain, forgetting for awhile that he was a Democrat. I’ve been telling friends, like the editor of our local paper, that McCain wanted him for VP; now, thanks to Newsweek, we learn that this was true. Also true: McCain was deprived of his choice (by the RNC?? by whom?) at the very last moment, forcing the non-vetted choice of Palin.
Certainly, Israel would be happy to have Lieberman in as VP. if part of the definition of Neocon is fighting Israel’s wars for it in proxy, then Joe is all there. It looks like Plan A didn’t make it, perhaps because the RNC could not stomach having a Democrat on the ticket.
But – probably no accident – they had another neocon on staff ready to help: Randy Scheunemann, head of foreign policy (and national security) for McCain, is a longtime neocon. Not that there was any lack of neocon assistance in McCain’s ranks, inluding John Bolton and Robert Kagan.
So here comes the theory part. Did you know that the Neocons first became entranced with Palin when they were conferencing on an Alaskan cruise, where she joined them for an afternoon tea? Word later was that they were bowled over by the Governor, with one person later describing her potential as “a blank slate.”
Zoom back two years later to Joe getting dumped. In no time, the Neocon Plan B comes into place, inserting Blank Slate Sarah in as VP instead of Joe.
Now you know where Sarah came from, it would seem. And by either plan, given Mac’s age, the Neocons would have a new VP, and likely a new President, before long.
While many in the press this week have been reviewing the lack of wisdom or vetting in McCain choosing Palin, no one has been mentioning the Neocons, at least in public. Except the NYTimes, which published a story last week in which it revealed that, near the end, Sheunemann was leaking anti-McCain inside information to uber-neocon William Kristol, for anonymous publication.
Gee, did Randy work for his boss, McCain? Or did he work for someone else?
Are you ready for Sarah? She looks like the new Neocon choice.
Luckily, there is no indication that Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s first staff pick (chief of staff), is a Neocon. True, he holds or held Israeli citizenship. True, he escorted Obama to a private meeting with the AIPAC executive board just after Obama made that embarrassing over the top speech to them about giving Israel all of Jerusalem, and true, he announced his support for Obama just after that executive session.
Did I mention that, during the first Gulf War, Rahm signed up for the Israeli military, rather than ours?
And of course you read the Net comments about his father, bragging back in Israel about the influence his son would have over Obama. Did you know his father belonged to the terrorist-like group Irgun, and is said to have assassinated a Swedish diplomat and other civilians on the path to the founding of Israel?
But he’s no Neocon.
Do you think McCain suspects that his friends, the Neocons, nuked him, first by picking Palin, and then by leaking campaign problems? I wonder if he can see it.
5 Responses to “Did the Neocons Nuke McCain?”
November 10th, 2008 at 11:37 am
I just saw that the unnamed McCain source who leaked the Africa story about Sarah Palin to Fox News was Martin Eisenstadt – he just came out of the shadows and admitted it on his blog:
http://www.eisenstadtgroup.com/2008/11/10/eisenstadt-the-source-for-sarah-palin-africa-leak-and-proud-of-it/
November 12th, 2008 at 12:53 am
That’s interesting. We will continue to learn more over the next few months. This does not add or detract, as far as I can tell, from the story of Randy Sheunemann leaking insider details to William Kristol, or therefore of the neocons leaking inside McCain information to damage the McCain campaign.
November 14th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Your analysis seems to be upheld by this revelation by Martin Eisenstadt. Sadly, McCain simply was a man who wanted to be president so much that he forgot whatever core he had. I remember the Keating scandal, and he seemed empty of any core moral philosophy. I always thought his “maverick” actions were caused by a lack of core values and a serious lack of vision about the downstream results of the legislation he supported or opposed. I think that Lieberman is back in the Democratic fold because he and more moderate Republicans lost to the Neocons in controlling McCain’s campaign. Yes, they nuked him.
Here’s a question for you, Mark, why do the Neocon’s want to control the party of ignorance and stupidity?
November 16th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Had McCain chosen Lieberman, we may actually have had a real race. Whereas the last two months of the race devolved into the typical ‘your-party-is-to- blame-no -your-party-is-to-blame’ rhetoric, a McCain-Lieberman ticket may have broken the mold enough to have lifted McCain above the partisan fray. UNFORTUNATELY for McCain he seems to have cracked under the pressure of the campaign and ignored the instincts – the same instincts that got him on the ticket in the first place.
November 27th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Um. You do know that ‘Martin Eisenstadt’ is a comedia/prankster doing this as advertising for his fake reality TV pitch? He never was an advisor of any kind…
When I first heard about Eisenstadt, I thought it was hugely funny and McCain/Palin were getting their just desserts (speaking as a foreigner). I’m torn though: suppose a candidate I supported was pranked in the same way and lost because of it… I have to hope that demonstrating intelligence, humility and actual factual knowledge would be sufficient defence.