Historically, the political world didn’t pay too much attention to who presidential campaigns brought on as policy advisors, but it’s hard to deny the significance of these staffers. For one thing, they help shape the candidates’ worldviews (particularly among the Republicans’ top tier, made up of men who lack ideas and principles of their own). For another, should any of these candidates actually win, the advisors will probably end up with powerful jobs in 2009.
With this in mind, it’s not at all encouraging that most of the credible GOP hopefuls have neocons whispering in their ears.
Most Americans disapprove of the Iraq war and of exporting democracy by force, yet neoconservative proponents of those policies advise the leading Republican presidential hopefuls.
“There is an overwhelming presence of neoconservatives and absence of traditional conservatives that I don’t know what to make of,” said Richard V. Allen, former Reagan White House national security adviser.
I do. It’s scary — inexperienced and uninformed GOP candidates are being easily misled by “serious” foreign policy advisors who want a continuation of the Cheney policies of the Bush era.
McCain is getting advice from PNAC leaders such as Robert Kagan and Randy Scheunemann. Romney has Dan Senor, who counseled Paul Bremer, on staff.
And Rudy Giuliani, who has less foreign policy knowledge and experience than almost any candidate in either party, is listening almost exclusively to high-profile neocons.
Famous as “America’s mayor” for rallying New Yorkers after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Mr. Giuliani’s selection of foreign-policy advisers prompted the Forward, an influential Jewish publication, to run a story last month headlined: “Giuliani Stacks Campaign Staff With a Who’s Who Of Mideast Hawks.” Among those is Mr. Podhoretz, who in May wrote a Wall Street Journal column urging a U.S. attack on Iran as “the only action that can stop Iran from following through on its evil intentions both toward us and toward Israel.”
It’s probably worth taking a moment to note that Podhoretz, Giuliani’s “Senior Foreign Policy Advisor,” is one of the least sensible neocons any presidential candidate could possibly hope for.
After all, Podhoretz is firmly of the opinion that we need to invade Iran immediately, that the current war in Iraq “couldn’t have gone better,” and that Saddam Hussein actually had stockpiles of WMD, but they were secretly “shipped to Syria” — a claim that even the Bush White House refuses to take seriously.
And while Podhoretz is Giuliani’s Senior Foreign Policy Advisor,” the former mayor’s “Chief Foreign Policy Advisor” is Charles Hill — best known as George Shultz’s assistant back when the Reagan administration was orchestrating arms shipments to Iran in the 1980s.
I’m not necessarily inclined to dismiss candidates solely on the basis of their staffing decisions, but what should one make of someone who hires these people as top advisors?