This week was bears all the way down, but there may be some light at the end of the tunnel. So enjoy a free Friday LinkSwarm:
A former political operative for State Rep. Charlie Geren (R–Fort Worth) has now admitted that he made a factually inaccurate and anonymous report to Child Protective Services against Geren’s opponent during a contentious 2016 Republican primary campaign.
As part of a settlement resolving a lawsuit brought by Bo French, David Sorensen has acknowledged he made the anonymous and incorrect election eve report to CPS alleging that French was abusing his children. The former Geren political aide has also acknowledged the report was not accurate, and he has apologized to the French family for submitting it.
“Before and after Geren’s campaign, Sorensen worked as an operative on Democrat political campaigns and for the Democrat Party.” After this confession, Sorensen should never work on the campaign of any candidate for any political party ever again…
Just as Milton’s Satan would rather reign in hell than to serve in heaven, so also neoconservatives would never be part of any movement if they were not acknowledged as the movement’s intellectual leadership. Neoconservatives were content to have John McCain win the GOP nomination and lose to Obama, since this result did not impair the market for what Kristol, et al., were selling — political commentary and policy analysis. What really threatened their racket, however, was when Republican primary voters in 2016 refused to be herded into the camp of any of the neoconservative-approved candidates. Make no mistake, Bill Kristol would have much rather seen Jeb Bush or Chris Christie win the GOP nomination and then lose to Hillary, than to have a Republican president who wouldn’t take advice from Bill Kristol.
Questions of policy — is Bill Kristol in favor of enforcing our immigration laws, or not? — were ultimately less important to the fate of the Weekly Standard than their intellectual pride. Neoconservatives decided in 2015 that Donald Trump should not be the Republican nominee and, when their advice was rejected by GOP primary voters, the neoconservatives doubled-down and decided that Hillary Clinton should be president. When that didn’t happen, they doubled down again, and declared Trump’s presidency illegitimate. At no point, apparently, did it ever occur to them to ask, “What if we’re wrong?” The possibility of error was not something Bill Kristol (Harvard, Class of 1979) was willing to consider.
Retweet if you want a puppy this Christmas.
Watch what happens when this doggo gets surprised with a new puppy. pic.twitter.com/mhpmFmwBXB
— Conservative Pets 🐶 (@ConservativePTZ) November 27, 2018
Wowsers!!! 🥺🙏🏼🇺🇸👍🏼 #Bush4141 #Remembering41 pic.twitter.com/b1NFFjQGPe
— 𝔍𝔢𝔫𝔫 🤟🏼 (@JuStJeNn45) December 6, 2018
America is not a kingdom, and a president is not a king, but the pagan power of a dead king’s passage still stirs some part of our ancient souls. These rituals of our civil religion (the lying in state, the transport of the coffin, the missing man flyover) are both objectively a little silly and subjectively profoundly important as part of the social glue that still binds the nation together.
Rest in peace, Mr. President.
Tags: Bush41, Charlie Geren, China, Communism, Crime, Czech Republic, David Sorensen, Democrats, dogs, Elon Musk, Facebook, Foreign Policy, George H. W. Bush, Google, green subsidies, Guns, John Stossel, LinkSwarm, Media Watch, Slovakia, Soviet Union, Texas, The Weekly Standard, video, Welfare State, William Kristol
The Vanity Fair article (i read 50% of) did not even mention Hillary as a 2020 contender. Good news (she’s finally gone)? Bad news (we’ll have a tougher fight instead)?