Paul Waldman on the recent Founding Fathers mania:
As a connoisseur of conservative politics, I was fascinated by an event that occurred last week when a group of movement graybeards got together to sign what was described as a new manifesto for the political right. The document itself wasn’t that interesting — it contained not a word about any policy and was notable mostly for its numbing repetition of the phrase “limited government.” What made the event interesting were the theatrics.
The group was dominated by Reagan-era notables and people who in the 1980s were called the “New Right.” They have since managed to hang around in comfortable Washington sinecures. The first name on the manifesto was Reagan attorney general Ed Meese; other signatories included Grover Norquist, Brent Bozell, Richard Viguerie, Alfred Regnery, Ed Feulner, David Keene, and Kenneth Blackwell. If you’re up on your movement big shots, you know that this is the heart of the conservative establishment.