THE ADULTS START SPEAKING UP….David Kay says there’s no WMD, Jerry Bremer says we didn’t have enough troops, John McCain says Bush blew it in Iraq, and Lincoln Chafee says he won’t vote for George Bush this year. And those are all Republicans! Who’s next?
Answer: Marshall Wittman. I’m not all that familiar with the guy myself, but he’s migrated from the Christian Coalition to the Heritage Foundation to John McCain’s staff, all the time promoting “national greatness conservatism,” a hawkish ideology just a smidge removed from neoconservatism. As an independent and intellectually honest conservative thinker, Josh Marshall says, “I think the world of him.”
So what’s he doing writing an article for Blueprint, the house organ of the Democratic Leadership Council? Endorsing John Kerry, that’s what:
There is no remaining shred of doubt that another four years of a Bush presidency would have a toxic effect on American politics. If George W. Bush is re-elected, unlimited corporate power, cynicism, and division will ride high in the saddle.
….on the key issues of progressive economics and a muscular and smart foreign policy, John Kerry’s ideas are far preferable to George W. Bush’s. And, with his gesture this summer in approaching McCain about the vice presidency, Kerry demonstrated that he is committed to a new politics of national unity.
Although I had my differences with Kerry during the Cold War, he has demonstrated by his hawkishness on Kosovo and Afghanistan that he is willing to use force to defend American ideas and interests. He advocates increasing the size of the U.S. military. On domestic issues, Kerry has positioned himself in the New Democrat tradition. Kerry has proposed an ambitious national service program. He would retain the tax cuts for the middle class while rolling them back on the super-rich. And he would reform, rather than eliminate, the estate tax.
Wittman has a lot of substantial disagreements with John Kerry and with the Democratic party in general, but given the choice he’s decided that the George Bush version of the Republican party is just too horrible to contemplate. I hope he’s not alone.
