Carol Iannone Rebukes Paleocon Schadenfreude

Chavez: The End!

By Scott McConnell

The Bush administration has pulled the plug on Chavez’ nomination. Despite her weaknesses, I think she would have been an asset to the cabinet and a potential ally on the coming battles over immigration, and I’m sorry she won’t be there. I regret that she has written nasty and thoughtless things about Pat Buchanan, but I’m almost tempted to say “Who hasn’t?” Outside the bubble of the regrettably one-sided neocon-paleocon intellectual battles, Chavez is by every measure a conservative, not exclusively a neo-conservative, and would have been an asset and a force for the good in a cabinet position. It does no good to any version of conservativism that she has been axed and doesn’t bode well for future battles. The Schadenfreude experienced by some on the Right because of her fall doesn’t even begin to compensate.

January 10, 2001