SO THAT'S THEIR...

SO THAT'S THEIR SECRET. Matt likes to argue that large swaths of today's right are "motivated more by a distrust of leftwingers" than by anything else. I happen to think he's right, and so I took particular pleasure in seeing Bill Kristol prove this thesis in his latest editorial. There, he notes that "Lamont is pro-carrot," which is to say Lamont believes you can achieve more abroad through incentives than punishments. This makes him, in Kristol's eyes, "an appropriate spokesman for what one might call the Bugs Bunny caucus that now dominates the Democratic party."Clever, no? The real fun comes a couple grafs later, though, when Kristol lays down a new North Star by which Bush can guide his foreign policy:

Here's a suggestion for the president: When the State Department asks him to embrace the path of diplomacy-�ber-alles, he should ask himself this question: What would the Bugs Bunny Democrats think? If they would approve, then the president should kill the initiative.

So there it is: Bush's foreign policy should be whatever the Democrats' foreign policy isn't. And any ideas that Democrats would approve of, Bush should instantly reject. Well then. This must be an example of that seriousness and clarity of purpose conservatives are always claiming progressives lack in the War on Terror.

--Ezra Klein