Daniel Larison is confused

The mills of God grind exceeding slow but exceeding fine. Mine grind exceeding slow. A decade or two ago in blog years, the American Conservative’s Daniel Larison, writing in a post labeled “George Will and ‘Cuba Derangement Syndrome’,”¹ proclaimed himself mystified by Georgie’s “strange conclusion” regarding a dispute between Ky. Sen. Rand Paul and Fl. Sen. Marco Rubio over President Obama’s decision to normalize political relations with Cuba. Affecting some confusion himself, Will writes

“What makes Rubio uncharacteristically shrill, saying Paul has “no idea what he’s talking about”? And what makes Paul too clever by half when saying Rubio wants to “retreat to our borders” and hence is an “isolationist”? CDS does this. As they brawl about Cuba, a geopolitical irrelevancy, neither seems presidential.”

As Larison notes, Will agrees entirely with Paul on substance, so why does he pretend to find both men wanting, in a dispute, moreover, that he suggests is not even worth disputing? Because, as Larison fails to note, the more that George agrees with Rand Paul—that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was a disaster, that the trade embargo with Cuba has been a total failure—the more George agrees with Barack Obama, whom George affects to despise.

By coming out flat-footedly against the invasion of Iraq—“the worst foreign policy decision in U.S. history”—Georgie dangerously frayed his standing with the neocon right, which still dominates foreign policy “thought” in the Republican Party. If George were whole-heartedly to endorse Rand Paul, well, that would tear it. As I’ve remarked more than once, Rand Paul is absolute poison to the neo-cons. Paul is currently trying to make nice to Israel, but people like William Kristol and Jennifer Rubin know where Paulie came from, and they aren’t fooled. It was only a couple of years ago that Paul was arguing that America’s close involvement with Israel endangered the lives of Middle East Christians. If an appreciable portion of the evangelical right were to accept that argument, the power of the AIPAC lobby would be significantly reduced. Unless Georgie wants to be double-teamed by Billy’s gat and Jennie’s brass knuckles (and I don’t think he does), he needs to keep some space between himself and Rand Paul.

Afterwords
Close students of monumental self-absorption (and no one else) will want to read George’s Cuban column in full, as he explains how “disgusting” Obama is while agreeing entirely with him in substance.