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The Neocons and John McCain

The Neocons and John McCain
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Washington Editor at Large of The Atlantic and founder and senior fellow of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation.

Washington Editor at Large of The Atlantic and founder and senior fellow of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation.
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Jim Lobe has a great profile piece on the movement of neoconservative sympathies in the Republican race and notes that a number of neocons and their chief pugnacious nationalist ally John Bolton have moved to support John McCain. This has gotten Sam Stein to speculate that Bolton would be high on the list of those McCain might appoint to serve as his Secretary of State (would I love to help manage the opposition in that confirmation battle!).

Bolton has been overstating McCain's support of him during his Senate confirmation battle. McCain certainly did support Bolton -- and even showed up at a press conference with Bill Frist once to make that point. However, when I asked what was really driving John McCain's support of Bolton at the time and his decision to appear at a press conference -- McCain responded "I'm here because Bill Frist asked me to be."

That's a very different line than McCain saying he believed John Bolton was the be-all of American diplomacy.

For those interested, I'll be moderating a book salon discussion today between 5 and 7 pm EST at Firedoglake on Jacob Heilbrunn's important profile on the neoconservative movement, They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons." Join us and have a live online chat with Heilbrunn about this group of folks trying to secure new lifelines connected to John McCain.

-- Steve Clemons publishes the popular political blog, The Washington Note

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