The Madonna of the neocon set

Great feed from Barbara A on this one. (The WaPo's Dana Milbank on "Prince of Darkness Denies Own Existence ") And I'm not referring to the Blessed Virgin in the title. I'm referring to the Michigan native Madonna who's made a career of reinventing herself in order to stay near the top of the heap. And in the neocon world, we're talking Richard Perle, who has thousands of dollars, opportunities for interviews and think-tank appearances, and whatever future he may have left as a celebrity expert riding on his ability to wiggle out of his culpability in bringing the Iraq war down on the US and the world. Now, says Perle, there were no neocons, nor did anyone of such ilk have anything to do with Bush's decision to invade Iraq.

Like Hell.

This is the same Perle who was asked (and I heard this at the time, in 2003, with mine own ears) what the US's "success" in taking down Saddam meant for other unfriendly Middle East regime. His response was: "You're next."

Milbank skewers him, but good, and Perle deserves it. But this is no sudden turn-around on Perle's part. Some of us were appalled a couple of years ago when PBS ran a special documentary about the invasion of Iraq and included as one of the major segments a long interview (much more than an interview; more like a visit) with Mr. Perle, who morphed into a kindly avuncular type and with sweet reasonableness assured the audience that the invasion of Iraq was oh-so-well-intentioned, a great thing, really. And the interviewer did practically nothing to point out the realities or press him on the issues and facts. (Admittedly, this was during the heart of the Bush presidency, at a time when some were demanding that PBS's support be reduced or eliminated, so the network may have been trying to demonstrate "balance" and save its own skin. Nonetheless, it was not one of PBS's better moments.)