Powerline turns against Rice, and against Giuliani

For several years I’ve been deriding Condoleezza Rice as Bush’s “twin brain” and as a woman motivated primarily by vanity, even as the mainstream conservatives continued to worship at her feet. Now Commentary’s blog, approvingly quoted by Powerline, declares that the empress of Annapolis is “a narcissist or a fool.”

However, as shifts in the wind go, calling Rice a narcissist and a fool is nothing compared with the preceding item at Powerline. Are you sitting down? Paul of Powerline attacks Rudolph Giuliani for what he sees as a dishonest attack by Giuliani on Romney. Paul then says that Giuliani evinces such a grandiose notion of his power to affect society that he not only is not a conservative, but “may be a little dangerous.” [Italics added.]

What? Folks, that’s Powerline, the court blog of the neocons, saying that the neocons’ candidate and hero, Giuliani, “may be a little dangerous.” Something’s going on here and I have no idea what it is.

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LA writes:

To give an idea of how strange it is for Paul to be speaking of Giuliani in such harsh terms, look at the way he was gushing over Giuliani last February:

HE’S GOOD

You have to admire the way Rudy Giuliani handles himself. The latest evidence is this interview with Hugh Hewitt. It’s all there—the willingness to laugh at himself, the eagerness to share credit and throw in the kind word, the recognition of human imperfection, the respect for the views of others, and the ability (enhanced by all of the above) to talk up his accomplishments and leadership skills without appearing unduly immodest.

He’s good.

Let’s also remember that Powerline worships the ground Norman Podhoretz walks on, and that Podhoretz is full-bore behind Giuliani. Giuliani has been the candidate of the pro-Bush neocons. For Paul to call Rudy “dangerous” merely for engaging in the same kind of puffery about his crime-fighting accomplishments that has been his bread and butter for the last several years, makes no sense at all.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 28, 2007 02:04 AM | Send