James Wolcott reads National Review — so you don’t have to.
Speaking of National Review, they recently ran an editorial accusing Senator Dick Durbin of perpetrating an “anti-American slander” most foul when he compared Guantanamo to the Soviet gulag, averring that this is characteristic not only of Durbin but of his party. What must they make of this recent tidbit unearthed by the New Yorker in a piece on the Larry Franklin-AIPAC espionage scandal:
“At about this time, Franklin received a call from Michael Ledeen, his ally in matters of Iran policy. ‘I called him and said, ‘Larry, what’s going on?’ ‘ Ledeen recalled. ‘He said, ‘Don’t worry. Sharansky’ ‘—Natan Sharansky, the former Soviet dissident—’ ‘survived years in the Gulag, and I’ll survive prison, too.’ ‘”
Ledeen, by the way, who often graces the pages of National Review, might have saved them the embarrassment of publishing such a singularly fatuous editorial.
Anti-American slander — it’s everywhere.
UPDATE: The convergence of the Two Justins. Says Justin Logan: “James Wolcott is reading the Corner so we don’t have to. Check this post on Rich Lowry moving the goalposts on Iraq (forward, back, forward…). My favorite, though, has to be this analysis of an exchange between John Derbyshire (who has, in fairness, said some truly odious things) and John ‘lead wit‘ Podhoretz.”