Reply #25: Zoellick is a long-time Bush supporter [View All]

[starroute]

He started out in the 80's as a protege of James Baker and is often said to be a realist and not a Neocon -- but he's sure been hanging out with Neocons at any recent time.

http://www.merip.org/mer/mer216/216_urbina.html

Selection of the Bush team began in August 1998, at a meeting arranged by former President Bush in Kennebunkport, Maine, between his son and Rice. Within months, Rice was helping Governor Bush assemble a group that even conservative columnist Robert Novak describes as a nest of hawks.

"If the brain trust reflects who the governor would put in office if elected president, his administration would be to the right not only of his father's but also of Ronald Reagan's," reported Novak to the Washington Post. The group includes Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Armitage, Richard Perle, Robert Zoellick and Stephen Halliday, all of whom served in senior national security posts in the Reagan and Bush administrations. Since Rice lacks a clear track record on Middle East matters, Wolfowitz and Perle will probably weigh in most on Middle East policy. Conspicuously absent from the roster are President Bush's secretaries of state James Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger and national security aide Brent Scowcroft, indicating Rice's preference for hard-right ideologues over more genteel Republicans with close corporate ties.

Perhaps the most telling decision in the selection process was picking Paul Wolfowitz over Richard Haass. "It a fight for the soul of George W. Bush on foreign policy in general but also Middle East policy specifically," commented AEI's Middle East analyst, David Wurmser.

On edit: Looking at that quote again, I'm struck by the extent to which we could have known back in 1998 where we'd be today -- if only we'd been paying closer attention. "A fight for the soul of George W. Bush" on Middle East policy with Paul Wolfowitz coming out the victor? Sheesh.